Ethical Aspects of Information Security …

Ethical Aspects of Information 
           Security
                 Elin Palm
       Department of Philosophy, 
 The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), 
           Stockholm, Sweden
   Research project KTH: "Assessing Public 
 Acceptance of Privacy Invasive ICTsolutions"
(1) Two surveys investigating Swedish citizens'
    awareness of and attitudes towards data 
    collection and trust in Information Security will 
    be conduected.
(2) Parallell to the empirical studies, a normative 
    analysis will be undertaken: what types of data 
    should individuals keep to themselves and why? 
    Under what conditions is informed consent a 
    justifiable means of protecting personal data?
               Aim of project
· Generate guidelines that can be used to predict 
  and assess the public's acceptance of novel 
  potentially privacy invasive ICT solutions and new 
  uses of such technology.
· The steadily increasing societal dependence on 
  ICT necessitates means and strategies for 
  securing ICTcarried functions and systems such 
  as eservices. This project provides a non
  technical solution, examining the ethical 
  foundations of Information Security.
           In order to identify
· morally defensible ways of obtaining and 
  securing personal data the following aspects 
  should be further investigated:
(1)The type of data to be collected ­ what types 
  of information are sensitive and why?
(2)The purpose of data collection and 
  information security.
(3)The conditions for substantial informed 
  consent (or consented information).
                    PRIVACY
· What is perceived of as privacy sensitive changes 
  with time and between individuals. Hence, an 
  updated understanding of individuals' de facto 
  experiences /expectations of privacy is needed.
· Privacy protection legislation should be informed 
  by but not only be based on actual perceptions 
  that could result in individuals claiming too much 
  or too little protection. 
· In addition, a normative analysis is needed.
          The value of privacy
· Privacy is important  and should be protected 
  for the reason that the more fundamental 
  value  personal autonomy  is safeguarded 
  thereby (cf. Rössler, 2005).
· Not everything that individuals consider 
  private should be framed and protected as 
  privacy sensitive but such aspects that are 
  related to selfgovernment
    Privacy  a collective interest
· Although central for personal autonomy, 
  privacy is not only an individual interest.
· A more fruitful way of protecting privacy is to 
  frame it as a collective good. "People have a 
  shared interest in privacy and privacy is 
  socially valuable" (Regan, 1995:213). Also in 
  German legislation.
· So understood, privacy is strengthened 
  against competing values like security.
                  SECURITY
· Security is often framed as a collective good 
  as opposed to the individual interest privacy 
  and we are typically asked to accept the 
  concrete and forseeable increment of 
  individuals' privacy for the possibility of 
  increased security.
· Just like attempts have been made to 
  operationalize privacy, the notion of security 
  must be made operational.
  Although no exhaustive answers 
as to what security is can be given we must try to 
  articultate: 
(1)security regarding what and for whom, e.g. what 
  threats we need protection from.
(2)What means that best serve these ends.
(3)When we have reached accpetable levels of 
  security.
Otherwise, there is a risk that privacy will be 
  sacrificed for an end that we cannot or wont 
  know when we have achieved.
                  CONSENT
· The standard principle regarding data 
  protection is that personal data cannot be 
  disclosed without the consent of the data 
  subject.
· The openness and individual participation 
  principles state that an individual must be 
  notified of the fact that her data is stored 
  and/or processed.
     For consent to be meaningful 
              however,
(1) the degree to which the data subject is 
  aware of the implications of her acts and
(2) the number and quality of alternatives open 
  to the moral agent must be considered.  That 
  is, consent must be contextualized (Palm, 
  2007).
                 Awareness
The level of awareness among individuals using ICT 
  is of relevance for the degree to which they 
  reasonably can be said to consent. It has been 
  argued that Commonn Criteria (CC) are of little 
  use for ordinary users who lack sufficient 
  technical capabilities and legal knowledge to 
  assess information systems in terms of 
  information security and privacy. Therefore they 
  need service of other competent parties to assess 
  the quality of ICT systems.
                  Alternatives
· When assessing the moral acceptability of 
  individuals' consent to omit personal data, the 
  value of utilizing/cost of refraining from using the 
  service for which data is needed must be taken 
  into consideration such as the import of e
  government and ehealth services, eetc etc.
· Since individuals often lack substantial 
  alternatives  their de facto use of certain services 
  cannot simply be considered to imply a real 
  acceptance. 
    Travelling by air for instance
typically requires of individuals to provide 
  personal information as well as to undergo 
  bodily and other privacy invasive procedures. 
In order to avoid this form of travelling, they 
  would have to choose much more time
  consuming means of transport. In case of 
  intercontinental travel there are often no 
  reasonable alternative means of travel 
  available.