Questions from "A Gift of Fire" 4th (Computer Ethics). Here is the pdf version of the book on Scribd
- A company in the Netherlands that makes navigation devices collects location data from the devices to provide real-time services to its customers. It also provides anonymous statistical data to government agencies to improve roads and traffic flow. Unknown to the company and its customers, the police used the data to choose sites for traffic cameras to catch speeders. Was this a privacy violation? Why or why not?
- The AOL search-query database released on the Web (Section 2.1.2) included the search query "How to kill your wife" and other related queries by the same person. Give arguments for and against allowing law enforcement agents to search the query databases of search engine companies periodically to detect plans for murders, terrorist attacks, or other serious crimes so that they can try to prevent them.
- A member of the Tampa, Florida, City Council described the camera and face recognition system installed in a Tampa neighborhood (Section 2.2.4) as "a public safety tool, no different from having Exercises 121 a cop walking around with a mug shot. Is he right? What are some similarities and differences, relevant to privacy, between the camera system and a cop walking around?