Home | Business News | Browse by Publication | E | Ethics and Information Technology

"Lost in translation"?: Intercultural dialogues on privacy and information ethics (Introduction to special issue on Privacy and Data Privacy Protection in Asia).

Article Excerpt
The papers collected here reflect and articulate central elements of a critical but still nascent dialogue among Western philosophers interested in information and computer ethics and their counterparts in "Eastern" (1) countries--specifically Japan, China, and Thailand. They share a common focus on privacy as a key element in information and computer ethics. Our goal in these papers is to provide philosophers and ethicists with some basic insights into the important similarities and crucial differences between Eastern and Western concepts and emerging data privacy protection laws-first of all, for the sake of furthering an informed and respectful global dialogue in information ethics. Given the global scope and influences of information technologies, such a global dialogue is critical--especially if an information ethics is to emerge that respects and fosters those elements of specific cultures that are crucial to their sense of identity.

In particular, as we will see, "privacy" intersects with basic conceptions of: the human person as refracted through notions of individuality and the larger collective; the nature of human consciousness and its potential facility as autonomous lawgiver and participant in a democratic polity vis-a-vis its dependence on larger social networks and the importance of the collective in sustaining desirable social order; and, perhaps most fundamentally, the basic value of individual as ego--either as basic ontological reality and/or as an undesirable illusion that funds both individual and collective dissatisfaction. In these and other ways, concepts of privacy thus touch upon some of the most fundamental philosophical questions and issues, ones that are of abiding interest to comparative philosophers--and indeed, we hope that our collection will be of interest and value to the project of comparative philosophy in general, as well as to information ethics in particular. Even more importantly, we hope that as readers work through these chapters, they will expand their understanding and appreciation not only of the important similarities but also of the irreducible differences between diverse cultures on these most fundamental matters. Such understanding and appreciation are the necessary preconditions for a mutual and respectful dialogue--precisely the sort of dialogue required by an emerging global information ethics.

China

Our collection begins with an overview of conceptions of privacy and emerging data privacy laws in China. Yao-Huai Lu [TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII] points out, there have been considerable anthropological analyses of Chinese culture, including attitudes towards privacy: but even the most recent and most significant do not, unfortunately, move beyond the small circle of elites and rulers in order to pay adequate attention to more ordinary, but more widely shared ideas of privacy-ideas that, moreover, have changed dramatically since the 1980s as China has become more and more open to Western countries, cultures, and their network and computing technologies.

Indeed, Prof. Lu argues that China is importing nothing less than both Western-style market economy and notions of democracy--and thereby the core Western notions of the individual and thus correlative notions of individual privacy and the importance of data privacy protection online. This is not to say, however, that extant Chinese attitudes have somehow been swept away. Rather to the contrary, a more fine-grained analysis shows critical differences as well as agreements with Western conceptions--including, for example, a shift from privacy as linked with Yinsi ([TEXT NOT REPRODUCIBLE IN ASCII], shameful secret) to a broader concept of privacy that includes more positive elements of private life as well. The article then turns to an extensive summary of contemporary Chinese law regarding privacy, along with a review of recent scholarly reflections on these laws--to conclude with the observation that contemporary Chinese law reflects a transition from a traditional focus on preserving the power of the state to a greater (Western-like) focus on individual rights as well.

Turning to recent ethical work, Prof. Lu finds that fewer than 20 papers have been published in China between 1994 and 2004 on issues of privacy--another indication that information ethics in China is in its very early stages. (2) Generally, Prof. Lu finds that while...

View this article FREE - Now for a Limited Time, try Goliath Business News
Free for 3 Days!