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On Privacy -- Conclusion

Previous: Introduction, Right to Privacy (part 1), (part 2), (part 3)

Claiming that privacy is about transactions and that being private is the recess of information is not immediately clear. Yet, the common logic that something is private so long as it is not published means that what we value and retain [...]

On Privacy — the Concept of Privacy

Previous: Introduction, Right to Privacy (part 1), (part 2), (part 3)

Outside of the important work to legally refine privacy and our freedoms for information, it is important to improve the sense of what privacy is in itself. If we have a good working notion of what is private and [...]

On Privacy — the Right to Privacy (3)

Previous: Introduction, Right to Privacy (part 1), (part 2)

It seems there are two kinds of particular private details that we value: Information on our movements and information on our states of being. Since the end game is a legal definition, there doesn’t need to be a lot of nuance as to [...]

On Privacy — the Right to Privacy (2)

Previous:  Introduction, Right to Privacy (part 1)

Confidential information can be generalized into isolated judgments or datum instead of long-term opinions or presumptions. The distinction is dependant upon how we highlight individual data points of people to be representative of themselves versus a private analysis of their behaviors or histories [...]

On Privacy — the Right to Privacy

Introduction to Essay

Privacy, if it is a human right, is legally difficult to identify.  There are ongoing efforts to develop the arguments for its limits and protections, but there is a strong assumption in the U.S. and Canada that generally citizens have some right to privacy.  Neither the Canadian Bill of [...]

On Privacy — Introduction

In October of 2003, Canada had the inconvenient fun of having to compare two competing indulgences.  On the one hand, there was the right of Parliamentary committees to summon and investigate all Federal organizations, whether they reported to Parliament directly or not.  And on the other, the right of the then Privacy [...]

Popular vs. Substantial

Many years ago when I was an undergraduate, in a townie bar that was so small and spare it could have fitted easily into any airport lounge, I had an argument that I could not win.  The friend I was chatting with enjoyed tugging on my academic roots, and although his father was a GP [...]

On Vocation — Ironies, Doubt and Delay

“And I especially puzzled and wondered when I remembered how long a time had passed since my nineteenth year, in which I had first fallen in love with wisdom and had determined as soon as I could find her to abandon the empty hopes and mad delusions of vain desires. Behold, I was now getting [...]

On Vocation — The Admirable Obsession

The idea of a vocation is now defunct in an age of specialization and broad material risk.  When this decline started, I’m not sure, but probably we can trace it merrily to the end of popular religion in Western, industrial countries.   Although, curiously, having a vocation is not an event you see many people in [...]

The Bar Raiser

Your specific role and responsibility is to “raise the bar.”  It’s not sufficient to meet the goals with quality or to create sustainable results, to not leave bodies in the road and completely alienate your peers.  You are judged on exceeding all expectations all the time.  This is a performance culture.

It’s [...]