"Not Cool Bro" Theory of Privacy - Brad Rosen at TEDxYale
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0:10 - 0:12Hi everybody. My name is Brad
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0:12 - 0:14and I'm here to talk to you about privacy.
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0:14 - 0:16So just a quick caveat
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0:16 - 0:19my views expressed are my own
not either of my employers, -
0:19 - 0:22so impute the crazy only to me.
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0:22 - 0:24So I wanna talk to you a little about how
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0:24 - 0:26privacy is changing and how the ways
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0:26 - 0:28that we think about what is private
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0:28 - 0:31has started to morph
and where I think it's going. -
0:31 - 0:33And so my premise to you is we've gone
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0:33 - 0:36from the society of privacy
laws to privacy norms -
0:36 - 0:39and that we can encapsulate this
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0:39 - 0:42with a simple phrase of
"Not cool bro" or -
0:42 - 0:45"bro act" or whatever
the proper term is -
0:45 - 0:48as the case may be.
So, now, you gonna ask, -
0:48 - 0:50What do I mean when I say
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0:50 - 0:53"Not cool bro"? So, when I say,
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0:53 - 0:55"Not cool bro",
I'll give you an example: -
0:55 - 0:56You are on Facebook and
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0:56 - 0:58you have a bad break-up or fight with
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0:58 - 1:00one of your friends.
And you block -
1:00 - 1:02that person and so they
can no longer see your wall. -
1:02 - 1:05Someone else who still has access to your
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1:05 - 1:07Facebook wall, goes in, and either
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1:07 - 1:09copies and pastes the entire thing,
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1:09 - 1:12or takes a screenshot every day
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1:12 - 1:14and mails it to that person.
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1:14 - 1:16OK, so our initial response is:
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1:16 - 1:19That's not cool. Not cool bro! Not cool!
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1:19 - 1:22We get the visceral feeling
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1:22 - 1:24that that's somehow privacy violation.
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1:24 - 1:26We get the feeling that that something
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1:26 - 1:28unseemly is happening but we don't know
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1:28 - 1:30how to quite talk about it.
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1:30 - 1:32And that is what I am talking about by
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1:32 - 1:34"Not cool bro" privacy, because the law
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1:34 - 1:36doesn't recognize that as a real
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1:36 - 1:37privacy interest.
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1:37 - 1:39So it first makes a little sense
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1:39 - 1:41to talk about what the law does recognize.
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1:41 - 1:43And most of our privacy comes from
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1:43 - 1:45the criminal context.
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1:45 - 1:49All privacy was literally --
you had to sneak up to -
1:49 - 1:51someones house and eavesdrop.
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1:51 - 1:53So the eaves of the house where water falls.
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1:53 - 1:55So you would stand outside
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1:55 - 1:56and you would listen.
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1:56 - 1:57You would climb over their fence,
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1:57 - 1:59shimmy across their lawn,
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1:59 - 2:00nozzle up to the side of the house,
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2:00 - 2:02maybe like you know poke a hole
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2:02 - 2:04on a window and then
you can eavesdrop. -
2:04 - 2:05That's what you had to do
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2:05 - 2:07to violate someone's privacy.
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2:07 - 2:08So privacy was really about access
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2:08 - 2:10to information.
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2:10 - 2:12And we didn't need special rules
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2:12 - 2:14regulating access to information because
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2:14 - 2:16you couldn't violate someone's privacy
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2:16 - 2:18in the 1700's, unless you showed up
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2:18 - 2:20at their front gate.
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2:20 - 2:22Right? There was no Facebook.
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2:22 - 2:25The only wall that happened in 1700
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2:25 - 2:26was literally the wall
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2:26 - 2:28outside the carriage house.
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2:28 - 2:33So we go from that to this modern era
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2:33 - 2:35or pre-modern era in which we have
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2:35 - 2:37ways of getting information
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2:37 - 2:39that don't necessarily involve
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2:39 - 2:42the traditional structures of space.
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2:42 - 2:43So there is a very famous case
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2:43 - 2:45involving a guy
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2:45 - 2:46who walks into the phone booth
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2:46 - 2:49and he closes the door behind him
and then he does some illegal activity -
2:49 - 2:51and the police are listening
and they don't have a warrant. -
2:51 - 2:54And by the way in the law
you need to get a warrant -
2:54 - 2:55before you can listen to any of this stuff.
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2:55 - 2:56And for those of you who've seen
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2:56 - 2:57CSI or Law and Order -
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2:57 - 3:00Big judges who give out warrants
are sometimes like Oprah: -
3:00 - 3:02You get a warrant and You get a warrant
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3:02 - 3:04and everybody gets a warrant.
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3:04 - 3:06(Laughter)
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3:06 - 3:08But at least we still have that
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3:08 - 3:09nominal process, that the privacy
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3:09 - 3:11is still being protected,
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3:11 - 3:13right, there is a reasonableness here.
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3:13 - 3:15Well, this guy and his name is Kats,
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3:15 - 3:18so you can have all sorts of phonetics --
it's spelled with a K. -
3:18 - 3:20He had a reasonable expectation
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3:20 - 3:22of privacy here. Two types:
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3:22 - 3:24It was subjected: meaning
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3:24 - 3:26he personally believed that it was private
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3:26 - 3:27because he closed the booth behind him.
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3:27 - 3:30And then two: objective.
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3:30 - 3:31Society as a whole is willing to say,
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3:31 - 3:33You know what, yeah, if you are going
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3:33 - 3:37into a telephone booth and close the door
that should be private. -
3:37 - 3:39Now, what about if we apply this to Facebook?
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3:39 - 3:42Right? This is the "not cool bro"
version of privacy. -
3:42 - 3:44You just take it one more step.
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3:44 - 3:46In the old version of privacy,
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3:46 - 3:48it's all about control over
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3:48 - 3:50the means of accessing information.
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3:50 - 3:53In the new version of privacy,
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3:53 - 3:54it's all about control over
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3:54 - 3:58who can get the information
that you give it to? -
3:58 - 4:00So in the old version of privacy,
if I tell someone, -
4:00 - 4:03"Hey I got an F on a test."
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4:03 - 4:05That person can tell anyone else
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4:05 - 4:06and it's not really considered
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4:06 - 4:08a violation of privacy.
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4:08 - 4:09I didn't keep it private,
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4:09 - 4:11because I allowed someone else access.
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4:11 - 4:13In the new version of privacy,
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4:13 - 4:16when you post something
to your Facebook wall, -
4:16 - 4:19if you prevented the rest of the world
from seeing it, -
4:19 - 4:22is there an implied understanding to
anyone else you've given access to -
4:22 - 4:24that they shouldn't re-share it?
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4:24 - 4:27Or another example:
If you are on Twitter -
4:27 - 4:29and you've got a protected Twitter stream
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4:29 - 4:30that no one can see
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4:30 - 4:33unless they expressly follow you
and you allow them. -
4:33 - 4:34And someone just sort of re-tweeting
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4:34 - 4:36all of your protected tweets.
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4:36 - 4:38You would say the exact same thing.
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4:38 - 4:39But the understanding would've been:
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4:39 - 4:41Wait a minute, I only let you see
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4:41 - 4:43my Twitter stream, because
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4:43 - 4:45I thought you weren't going to re-tweet it.
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4:45 - 4:48You violated some sort of implied understanding
we had. -
4:48 - 4:50So, now we have our modern eavesdropper,
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4:50 - 4:52who is in your Facebook wall
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4:52 - 4:54posting again. So this is
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4:54 - 4:56our modern eavesdropper overhearing
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4:56 - 4:58in conversation. So how do we get
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4:58 - 5:00to a place in which the law
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5:00 - 5:02can come up to where we are.
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5:02 - 5:06Because we think of this,
new norm, this new idea -
5:06 - 5:08you won't re-share something
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5:08 - 5:10I only share with you.
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5:10 - 5:11How do we get there?
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5:11 - 5:13And there is actually an interesting way
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5:13 - 5:16and I'll take it back a little bit
to give you an example. -
5:16 - 5:18When Facebook started out
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5:18 - 5:20you had to be a member of a network
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5:20 - 5:22to just look at someone's profile.
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5:22 - 5:25And I remember having a job,
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5:25 - 5:28where someone in HR knew
that I went to Yale -
5:28 - 5:30and sent me an e-mail
and said: -
5:30 - 5:31Brad, we know you went to Yale,
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5:31 - 5:35could you log into Facebook
and print out a copy -
5:35 - 5:37of this applicant's Facebook page?
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5:37 - 5:39We'd like to see it.
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5:39 - 5:40So, by the way, for those of you
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5:40 - 5:43who thought that didn't happen,
it was happening in 2004. -
5:43 - 5:44So you better believe it's happening now.
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5:44 - 5:49That said, I recoiled in like
shock and horror. -
5:49 - 5:52I was like that would be a violation
of that person's privacy. -
5:52 - 5:53It would be a betrayal of trust.
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5:53 - 5:57But the idea was back then,
what happened in the Yale network, -
5:57 - 5:58stayed in the Yale network.
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5:58 - 6:00It's kind of like Vegas.
(Laughter) -
6:00 - 6:03And so, there was a knowledge
that was like, -
6:03 - 6:05Hey, not cool, bro!
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6:05 - 6:06You knew that you only had access to this.
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6:06 - 6:09There was a reciprocal understanding.
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6:09 - 6:11You won't tell other people
what goes on in the Yale network, -
6:11 - 6:14and I won't tell other people
what goes on in the Yale network. -
6:14 - 6:15And so, if you think about it
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6:15 - 6:17there is an implied commitment
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6:17 - 6:18when you join any of these social networks,
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6:18 - 6:20that if you are not supposed
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6:20 - 6:22to re-share information, you won't.
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6:22 - 6:24And there is another area of the law
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6:24 - 6:27that actually has really
had this transformation, -
6:27 - 6:29where they went from a very formal --
you have to be explicit understandings -- -
6:29 - 6:31to just anything goes.
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6:31 - 6:32And that's products liability.
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6:32 - 6:34As crazy as this may sound
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6:34 - 6:35there was a time where if you bought
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6:35 - 6:39a can of coca-cola and it blew up
in your hand as you were drinking it. -
6:39 - 6:40The only person you could sue
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6:40 - 6:42was the bodega or bodegua,
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6:42 - 6:45as the case may be, that you bought it from.
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6:45 - 6:48And over time courts sort of didn't like this.
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6:48 - 6:50They said, Well, there is an implied contract
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6:50 - 6:52between the original manufacturer
and each step in the chain -
6:52 - 6:54of distributions until to the ultimate consumer
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6:54 - 6:57does not need to be
in contractual privity -
6:57 - 6:58with the original manufacturer.
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6:58 - 7:00Which is the fancy way of saying:
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7:00 - 7:02We are going to say
that there is an implied contract -
7:02 - 7:04that runs all the way
through all these steps in the middle. -
7:04 - 7:06And when you finally buy
that can of coke, -
7:06 - 7:09you get an implied contract from Coke.
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7:09 - 7:12Finally a court in California said,
Enough, is enough. -
7:12 - 7:14We are done pretending,
we are done making up -
7:14 - 7:16these implied contracts.
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7:16 - 7:18We are just gonna say
strict liability applies -
7:18 - 7:22if you make a product
and you put it out in the universe. -
7:22 - 7:23You have a reasonable understanding
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7:23 - 7:25that if somebody gets hurt
by that product -
7:25 - 7:27they are going to sue you.
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7:27 - 7:29We can do the exact same thing
with privacy. -
7:29 - 7:31If you join a social network,
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7:31 - 7:33Facebook, Twitter, Google+
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7:33 - 7:37and you join that network
knowing that there are privacy settings -
7:37 - 7:40and knowing that other people
are sharing information with you, -
7:40 - 7:44but at the same time
prohibiting other people -
7:44 - 7:46from accessing that information.
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7:46 - 7:49It's a violation of whatever
you wanna phrase it as. -
7:49 - 7:52Wouldn't that person's
expressed understanding -
7:52 - 7:54that they would only share
the information with you -
7:54 - 7:55if you didn't re-share it.
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7:55 - 7:58Now, we can get there without
waiting, for example, -
7:58 - 8:02Facebook could put a little lock
or a hash icon on every post -
8:02 - 8:05on every element of Facebook
that's been shared with you -
8:05 - 8:08that would let you know
whether or not it was public, -
8:08 - 8:09whether or not it was OK to re-share.
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8:09 - 8:10Twitter already does this.
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8:10 - 8:13You can not one click re-tweet
a protected tweet. -
8:13 - 8:18And Craigslist has code-matching that
will actually look at posts -
8:18 - 8:20you've previously made
and if you're re-posting -
8:20 - 8:22similar content it will stop you.
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8:22 - 8:24Facebook and Twitter
could do the exact same thing -
8:24 - 8:27if they see you trying
to use copy and paste -
8:27 - 8:29to get around these mechanisms.
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8:29 - 8:30The other thing they could do is,
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8:30 - 8:31we could amend our terms of service,
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8:31 - 8:33we could make an expressed term of service
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8:33 - 8:37to re-share information
that is not supposed to be re-shared. -
8:37 - 8:39Like on Google+,
where you can actually click -
8:39 - 8:41"Disable re-sharing"
and then no one else can. -
8:41 - 8:45So there is a sense
that we can get there. -
8:45 - 8:48We also can maybe get there in law.
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8:48 - 8:50It won't necessarily happen
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8:50 - 8:52right away, but in a recent case
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8:52 - 8:54the Supreme Court is starting
to go there. -
8:54 - 8:57In the Jones case,
which dealt with GPS. -
8:57 - 8:59Justice Sotomayor said maybe it's time
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8:59 - 9:03that we start to rethink this notion
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9:03 - 9:04that if you share something
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9:04 - 9:07with one person it is no longer private.
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9:07 - 9:11Because our societal expectations
have changed. -
9:11 - 9:14We've moved from law to norms.
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9:14 - 9:19The norms of not-cool-bro-to-re-share
are how we now think about privacy. -
9:19 - 9:22And as a result our law
is lagging behind a little bit. -
9:22 - 9:25And although we are not there yet
with our laws, -
9:25 - 9:27we have inter measures
we can use from code. -
9:27 - 9:31So the interesting thing
to see is where we head -
9:31 - 9:34now that we are a society of norms
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9:34 - 9:36and when we think about privacy
as norm-based. -
9:37 - 9:40(Applause)
- Title:
- "Not Cool Bro" Theory of Privacy - Brad Rosen at TEDxYale
- Description:
-
Brad Rosen is a lecturer in the computer science department at Yale University. He talks about how privacy is changing and about how the ways we think about what is private is beginning to morph and where he thinks it's going with his "not cool, bro" theory of privacy.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDxTalks
- Duration:
- 09:46
Ivana Korom commented on English subtitles for "Not Cool Bro" Theory of Privacy - Brad Rosen at TEDxYale | ||
Ivana Korom edited English subtitles for "Not Cool Bro" Theory of Privacy - Brad Rosen at TEDxYale | ||
Ivana Korom edited English subtitles for "Not Cool Bro" Theory of Privacy - Brad Rosen at TEDxYale | ||
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Ivana Korom approved English subtitles for "Not Cool Bro" Theory of Privacy - Brad Rosen at TEDxYale | ||
Ivana Korom commented on English subtitles for "Not Cool Bro" Theory of Privacy - Brad Rosen at TEDxYale | ||
Ivana Korom edited English subtitles for "Not Cool Bro" Theory of Privacy - Brad Rosen at TEDxYale | ||
Ivana Korom edited English subtitles for "Not Cool Bro" Theory of Privacy - Brad Rosen at TEDxYale |