[Air-L] on the Wayback Machine (was public/private [part 1 of 2])

[Michael Zimmer]

How are they not adding to the potential audience? When I'm sitting  
in the park, there are a finite number of people in the park who  
happen to be looking in my direction at the precise moment my finger  
enters my nose. Isn't that often part of the calculus when people do  
embarrassing things in public - that few people will see it, and  
those that do don't know me, etc.

Now, having said action captured by a camera -- a camera, mind you,  
that no one gave consent to (many public CCTV systems are required to  
at least post notice - not so with Google's cute little cars roaming  
our cities with their 11-lens cameras) -- and then indexed and  
uploaded by one of the world's largest brokers of information  
constitutes a significant shift in my expectations of the visibility  
of my action. I had never considered (nor had any say in the matter)  
as to whether it would be recorded, meta-tagged with a location  
(perhaps even the date), nor made available online.

Even if we feel that isn't a violation of contextual integrity (see  
Nissenbaum), I could perhaps rest assured that it is highly unlikely  
that someone happens to stumble upon that particular image from the  
millions captured by Google. Surely, few will find it, let alone my  
mother. Enter Mr Leno & Mr Letterman (don't know if it was them - but  
for sake of example...). Now, instead of me relying on the obscurity  
of the particular image to protect my embarrassment, its existence  
and URL has been broadcast to millions by two popular and trusted  
celebrities. Ping!

IMO, the whole "you did it in public anyway" argument holds little  
water...

-mz

-----
Michael Zimmer, PhD
Microsoft Fellow, Information Society Project, Yale Law School
e: michael.zimmer at nyu.edu
w: http://michaelzimmer.org



On Aug 13, 2007, at 6:43 PM, Lois Ann Scheidt wrote:
>
> Not to mention the potential embarrassment to the gentleman from
> Arizona - I think it was Arizona - who was captured sitting on a park
> bench picking his nose.  The potential embarrassment would be  
> increased
> - at least in some writers estimation - because all the late night  
> talk
> show hosts pointed directly at this guy in their monologues...even
> giving the URL in some cases.
>
> HOWEVER, since the action in question - said nose picking - took place
> in public and was captured and posted on the web...the late night talk
> show hosts might have been shining a brighter light on the whole thing
> but they were not adding to the potential audience.
>
>
> Lois
>