Exposed

5A Case Against Privacy: Better Policy/Practices

“I know what you're thinking about, but it isn't so, nohow. Contrariwise, if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.”

—Dashiell Hammett, quoting Alice In Wonderland, in Citizen Cohn, by David Franzoni

In Chapter 2, I discussed how privacy/secrecy can lead to police abuses of citizens and how lack of privacy/secrecy can also protect police from distorted/malicious false accusations. There's another aspect to privacy that harms society overall: bad policy based on private data, or data that has been influenced by privacy concerns (both direct and indirect privacy impacts on the creation of sound policy). In this chapter, I'll discuss three types of detrimental behaviors and societal effects.

• Policy based on bad data/assumptions, for police in the United States handling dog encounters
• Policy based on bad data/assumptions due to privacy/shame, for medical providers, law enforcers, and community members in the United States regarding gay people
• Concern for privacy by medical professionals that leads to creating bad datasets that affect public records and further leads to the potential for bad policies

Policy Based on Bad Data: US Police and Dogs

In the United States, police encounters with dogs often lead to the police officers shooting dogs; the US Department of Justice estimates that thousands of cases of deadly or unnecessary force against dogs are alleged each year. ...