Re: [ietf-privacy] Is there an official working definition for Privacy Online?

[Dave Crocker <[e-mail]>]

On 5/5/2016 1:30 AM, Robin Wilton wrote:
> Privacy can also be a subjective thing (for instance, some people
> think it's important to draw their curtains in the evening - others
> don't). That subjectivity makes privacy a highly contextual thing,

This is an Alice, Through the Looking Glass perspective on the term.

At the least, it means it is not a technical term, in which case using 
it in technical contexts is mostly going to cause confusion, since one 
speaker's intended meaning will differ from another listener's...

Standards work is primarily an exercise in gaining group consensus on 
technical specifics.  If 'privacy' is to be a technical term, then we 
need to agree on its specifics.  That doesn't mean the term needs lots 
of fine-grained detail.  In fact, for something this important and this 
basic, it needs as little detail as possible, while still serving to 
guide technical choices.


> Privacy is about retaining the ability to disclose data consensually,
> and with expectations regarding the context and scope of sharing.
...
 > http://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2013/12/language-privacy


This looks like an entirely reasonable and helpful definition, as I 
noted a year ago.

There are other, similarly short and focused, definitions. Each is 
reasonable.  And while the differences in the definitions probably 
matter, I think that the need to focus technical work requires choosing 
one.  If we want the term to have useful substance.

The fact that choosing one has some challenges is being used as a reason 
for not trying.  That's an ironic excuse, for an organization whose 
primary reason for being is the development of community consensus on 
non-trivial choices...


d/
-- 

   Dave Crocker
   Brandenburg InternetWorking
   bbiw.net

-- 

   Dave Crocker
   Brandenburg InternetWorking
   bbiw.net