[Air-l] ethics - aol data

[Julie Cohen]

>
>
>>>Dan:
>>>
>>>>I'm a little unclear as to Jeremy's referent here; specifically, what
>>>>"property" he is talking about. If he is talking about the data, I  
>>>>would rather vigorously oppose characterizing it in that manner. If he is  
>>>>talking about the hardware/software on which the data resides, then we need to
>>>>distinguish between ownership/control/use of the "property" carrying the
>>>>information, and ownership/control/use of the information itself.  
>>>>Google and AOL may have a proprietary interest in one, but not necessarily  
>>>>the other.
>>>>
>>>>Julie Cohen is lurking around here somewhere and might have a  
>>>>thought or two on the distinction. :)
>>>>        
>>>>
>Jeremy:
>
>here i was talking about the data, which they collected and  
>redistributed and the search logs specifically.  I think that data is  
>pretty much their property.  it is like all computer logs in my  
>mind.  do the users of a webserver own the logs or does the owner of  
>the webserver?  in the case of medical or dental records, you clearly  
>have a claim to your personal data, but... in the case of search  
>logs, i don't think the user of a system really has much of a claim.   
>if they give up personal information to the system, that seems very  
>much like giving it away to me, more of a caveat emptor for services  
>rendered.  is aol the owner of the data or the caretaker of data?   
>that's a good question.
>
>  
>
can't a person lurk in peace?

Jeremy, I'm not sure what kind of statement you're making.  If a 
statement of positive statutory law, it's true (but only in the U.S.) 
that there are statutes establishing privacy claims in medical and 
dental records but none establishing claims in search logs.  In the 
European countries at least, I think there are statutory privacy 
interests covering both medical/dental records and search logs.  I 
believe that search logs are also subject to some retention requirements 
for law enforcement purposes (this is true at least at the EU level but 
I have no idea about the status of national implementation), but the 
personal information they contain isn't considered the ISP's property.

If, otoh, you're making a more general normative statement that privacy 
interests exist in medical/dental records but not in the contents of 
searches, why?

-- 
Julie E. Cohen
Professor of Law
Georgetown University Law Center
600 New Jersey Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20001
V 202-662-9871
F 202-662-9410
jec at law.georgetown.edu
http://www.law.georgetown.edu/faculty/jec/