Distributing Privacy: Risks, Protection, and Policy. Charles D. Raab, University of Edinburgh; and Colin J. Bennett, University of Victoria, British Columbia
This paper discusses a relatively neglected topic in the study of information privacy and data protection: the social distribution of the privacy risks faced and perceived by individuals, and the ability of laws and practices of data protection systems to ameliorate differentials and thus to promote equality in the distribution of privacy, and/or to create confidence in personal-information systems. To the extent that an examination of the distribution of privacy risks, fears and protections might identify particularly vulnerable social groups, their privacy might be enhanced. However, there are many conceptual and empirical difficulties in gaining a purchase on the topic. Not least is the problem of understanding and evaluating risk itself, apart from the question of its distribution.
The paper explores issues involved in privacy protection, explains and criticises the invisibility of equity issues in data protection, and explores the image of the data subject with a view to its reconceptualisation in terms of who is at risk from what privacy invasions. Illustrations are cited from the growing body of survey research on privacy which casts light on public attitudes towards, and knowledge of, privacy risks and privacy protection. The paper then looks at the question of risk as such, in order to seek further points of orientation for grasping the main issues, but reaches no optimistic conclusion about the possibility of a scientific determination of privacy risks that is independent of subjective perceptions.