Online Social Networks and E-Commerce - MIT Computer Science ...

Clarence Lee and Shirley Fung
was done, like in this scenario, consumers may not even know why their insurance premiums were
increased.
Proposing a Blanket Privacy Policy Protecting Online Data from
Government Intrusion
As described in the previous sections, there are several issues with the status quo. The proposal to have a
blanket privacy policy is to prevent further government intrusions on privacy over online data and
communications. In addition, a simpler policy will be easier for citizens to understand. All online data and
communications should be treated equally under this new policy.
Policy Analysis
A blanket policy will aim to ensure that all online communications and data stored by third parties to be
protected under a high level of protection against the government. In order for the government to obtain
information such as all email or internet logs, a warrant issued on a high probable cause needs to be
required. In doing so, government officials need to meet a higher standard of proof for how this
information is relevant to the current investigation.
It is clear that there is an intrusion of privacy when the government would like to get their hands on data
on these Web sites, but it is unclear why different kinds of data are protected under different levels of
protection. It is illustrated in this paper that the electronic communications stored on various online
services providers are all information that can reveal a lot of sensitive information about individuals.
As more kinds of activities arose on the Internet, policy makers and court rulings have been creating
patchwork to determine what kind of data should be covered under which kind of privacy protection.
What they have failed to realize is that all the different kinds of information can provide a lot of
information about an individual. Consequently, data protected under a lower standard, became loopholes
in our legal system for electronic surveillance. This opens up areas where investigators can deduce similar
information using information such as internet logs, which can be easily obtained with a court order.
Having a blanket policy protection will protect all online activities as a whole, so that it would provide a
more comprehensive protection on our privacy. It would effectively remove artificial exceptions such as
whether an email was opened or unopened, or whether the email was 180 days old or not. Such a policy
would be easier to understand and enforce. As technology evolves, we may expect that other kinds of data
would be used and stored by third parties. A blanket policy would be advantageous because it would
continue to cover new kinds of online records.
Page 28