Online Data and Privacy

Sections of this guide heavily borrowed from University of Portland.

Privacy in a legal sense means the rights of the individual to make personal decisions and conduct their lives without public scrutiny.  The right to privacy is protected by the Constitution and inferred in the language of the First, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments.

Digital privacy concerns the rights of individuals to decide how their digital information (personally identifiable information) is collected and used.

Daniel J. Solove,Yale Law School graduate and the John Marshall Harlan Research Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School, articulates 10 reasons privacy is important:

1. Limit on power,
2. Respect for the individual,
3. Reputation management,
4. Respect for social boundaries,
5. Trust,
6. Control over one's life,
7. Freedom of thought and speech,
8. Freedom of social and political activities,
9. Ability to change and have second chances, and
10. Not having to explain or justify yourself.