THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, November 2, 1994 TAG: 9411010043
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E7 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: BOOK BREAK
TYPE: Book Review
SOURCE: BY CHRISTOPHER LEE PHILIPS
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
THE ``INFORMATION superhighway'' is perhaps the most over-hyped news story of the decade, with the constant journalistic touting of the Internet as the gateway to information nirvana running a close second.Both the federal government and the private sector would have us believe that the ``global village'' that Marshall McLuhan envisioned 30 years ago can be accessed through any number of electronic on-ramps. Road signs indicate that advertisers, telecom-munication companies and retailers, among others, are chomping at the byte.
What has been lacking in this feeding frenzy is a responsible overview of how the current revolution taking place in the ``information age'' will affect mere mortals such as ourselves in terms of our ability to acquire the information we seek and to protect our own private information from those who would seek to exploit it.
In her fascinating and occasionally Orwellian study, ``Who Owns Information?: From Privacy to Public Access'' (Basic Books, $25), Anne Wells Branscomb, a communications lawyer and legal scholar at Harvard's Program on Information Resource Policy, poses some basic questions about freedom of information and the right of privacy in the information age. And though the topics she chooses focus on details about certain information resources that we often take for granted, her lucid interpretation of their importance vis-a-vis evolving technologies, commercial activities and regulatory issues suggests that Americans must increase their awareness of privacy issues at the heart of the information revolution.
The convergence of once seemingly unrelated technologies as the telephone, the television and the computer now powers the engine of commerce that drives our ability to acquire goods and services in the electronic marketplace. Personal, commercial and civic transactions can now be made with greater speed and convenience than ever before. But the advance of technology in its ability to acquire, deliver and store information has far outpaced the legislation governing such activities. This leads to some troubling questions.
Who owns your name, address and phone number? How about your electronic mail? Does that belong to you or your employer? Is this ``information,'' as insignificant as it may seem, a resource that can be bought, sold or otherwise revealed and reviewed without your awareness or per-mission?
Your medical records would seem to be private and privileged information, but who owns that information? Is it your doctor? The hospital? The health-care conglomerate that administers your health-care plan? How about your credit report, your SAT scores, your genetic characteristics. . . ?
From the moment you are given a Social Security number, you are irreversibly drawn into the electronic information maelstrom. Never mind the information you contribute upon applying for a credit card or joining a professional association. This information has to belong to someone. But who is to decide its value or its ownership? You or telemarketers?
Branscomb's point, illustrated by fascinating cases and supported by cogent analysis, is simply this: If we as individuals do not assert our rights where these information resources are concerned, we face growing infringement, if not outright loss of those rights. MEMO: Christopher Lee Philips, a graduate of Old Dominion University, is a
special projects editor at United Press International in Washington. by CNB