In a recent Educause blog post, Sol Bermann (privacy officer and interim CISO at U-M) examines the concept of autonomy privacy and argues for its importance in higher education. Higher education, Bermann writes, rightfully prides itself as being a place where freedom of expression, intellectual discourse, dissenting views, and social experimentation are not just the norm but expected. The ability to engage in any or all of these activities is best done when an individual is not concerned with being (potentially or actually) under surveillance. Privacy professionals often think of privacy in two distinct but occasionally interrelated categories: data privacy and autonomy privacy. In the digital age, we often focus on data privacy. But in doing so we risk losing track of how pervasive and quickly data collection, big data, and data science create autonomy-privacy issues that can impact free expression or dissenting views as much as pervasive security cameras or wiretaps.
