Top

Ethics and Information Technology

Published in:

14-03-2016 | Original Paper

Personal information as communicative acts

Author: Jens-Erik Mai

Published in: Ethics and Information Technology | Issue 1/2016

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config

AI-assisted search

Off

Abstract

The paper extends previous accounts of informational privacy as a contextual notion. Where previous accounts have focused on interpretations of the privacy context itself as being contextual and open for negotiation and interpretation, this paper extends those analyses and shows that personal information itself is in fact best understood as contextual and situational—and as such open for interpretation. The paper reviews the notion of information as it has been applied in informational privacy and philosophy of information, and suggests that personal information ought to be regarded as communicative acts. The paper suggests a reconceptualization of informational privacy from having its focus on controlling, limiting, and restricting access to material carriers of information to a focus on a regulation of the use, analysis, and interpretation of personal information.

previous article Privacy, speech, and values: what we have no business knowing

next article Privacy: an institutional fact

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 102.000 Bücher
über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Finance + Banking
Management + Führung
Marketing + Vertrieb
Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

über 67.000 Bücher
über 390 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

Automobil + Motoren
Bauwesen + Immobilien
Business IT + Informatik
Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Agre, P. E. (1994). Surveillance and capture: Two models of privacy. The Information Society, 10(2), 101–127.CrossRef

Bateson, G. (1972). Steps to an ecology of mind. New York: Ballantine.

Buckland, M. (1991). Information as thing. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 42(5), 351–360.CrossRef

Cornelius, I. (2002). Theorizing information for information science. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 43, 393–425.

Dretske, F. (2008). Epistemology and information. In P. Adriaans & J. van Benthem (Eds.), Handbook of the philosophy of science (Vol. 8, pp. 29–47)., Philosophy of information Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Floridi, L. (2005). The ontological interpretation of informational privacy. Ethics and Information Technology, 7(4), 185–200.CrossRef

Floridi, L. (2008a). Foundations of information ethics. In K. E. Himma & H. T. Tavani (Eds.), The handbook of information and computer ethics (pp. 3–23). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.

Floridi, L. (2008b). Trends in the philosophy of information. In P. Adriaans & J. van Benthem (Eds.), Handbook of the philosophy of science (Vol. 8, pp. 113–131)., Philosophy of information Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Floridi, L. (2010). Information. A very short introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRefMATH

Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. New York, NY: Vintage Books.

Fox, C. J. (1983). Information and misinformation: An investigation of the notions of information, misinformation, informing, and misinforming. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Goguen, J. A. (1997). Towards a social, ethical theory of information. In G. Bowker, L. Gasser, S. L. Star, & W. Turner (Eds.), Social science research, technical systems and cooperative work: beyond the great divide (pp. 27–56). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Grice, H. P. (1957). Meaning. In H. P. Grice (Ed.), Studies in the way of words (pp. 213–223). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Grice, H. P. (1967). Logic and conversation. In H. P. Grice (Ed.), Studies in the way of words (pp. 22–40). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Grice, H. P. (1989). Studies in the way of words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Halavais, A. (2015). Bigger sociological imaginations: Framing big social data theory and methods. Information, Communication & Society, 18(5), 583–594.CrossRef

Lyon, D. (2001). Surveillance society: Monitoring everyday life. Buckingham: Open University Press.

Mai, J.-E. (2013). The quality and qualities of information. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 64(4), 675–688.CrossRef

Mai, J.-E. (forthcoming). Big data privacy: The datafication of personal information. The Information Society, 32(3).

Martens, B. V. D. V. (2015). An illustrated guide to the infosphere. Library Trends, 63(3), 317–361.CrossRef

Mathiesen, K. (2015). Toward a political philosophy of information. Library Trends, 63(3), 427–447.CrossRef

Mayer-Schönberger, V., & Cukier, K. (2013). Big data: A revolution that will transform how we live, work and think. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Nunberg, G. (1996). Farewell to the information age. In G. Nunberg (Ed.), The future of the book (pp. 103–138). Berkeley: University of California Press.

Peters, J. D. (1988). Information: Notes toward a critical history. Journal of Information Inquiry, 12(2), 9–23.

Solove, D. J. (2008). Understanding privacy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Solove, D. J. (2013). Privacy self-management and the consent dilemma. Harvard Law Review, 126, 1880–1903.

Strawson, P. (1970). Meaning and truth. In A. P. Martinich (Ed.), The philosophy of language (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Tavani, H. T. (2008). Informational privacy: Concepts, theories, and controversies. In K. E. Himma & H. T. Tavani (Eds.), The handbook of information and computer ethics (pp. 131–164). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.CrossRef

Warren, S., & Brandis, L. (1890). The right to privacy. In D. Adam (Ed.), Moore Information ethics: Privacy, property, and power. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.

Wilson, P. (1977). Public knowledge and private ignorance. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

Title: Personal information as communicative acts
Author: Jens-Erik Mai
Publication date: 14-03-2016
Publisher: Springer Netherlands
Published in: Ethics and Information Technology / Issue 1/2016
Print ISSN: 1388-1957
Electronic ISSN: 1572-8439
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10676-016-9390-4

Springer Professional

Abstract

Please log in to get access to your license.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Springer Professional "Technik"

Other articles of this Issue 1/2016

Big data: Finders keepers, losers weepers?

Indiscriminate mass surveillance and the public sphere

Privacy: an institutional fact

The transparent self

Privacy, speech, and values: what we have no business knowing

Remembering me: big data, individual identity, and the psychological necessity of forgetting

Premium Partner