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Lumeria's Privacy Statement
The next decade will be a critical period in the development and articulation of the individual's right to privacy in American society and the world. In Privacy & Freedom, Alan Westin offers the following definition for privacy:
"Individuals, groups, or institutions have the right to control, edit, manage, and delete information about them and decide when, how, and to what extent that information is communicated to others."
Using Westin's definition as a beacon, we are committed to developing technologies to insure that individuals are not trampled for the perceived short-term benefit of corporate, governmental, and/or marketing interests. Furthermore, privacy is not just about hiding information from others, but also controlling the flow of your personal information. Your personal data should be your property. We are developing tools necessary to help you manage, control, and protect this property. However, this is an extremely broad definition of privacy that does not take into account other societal values.
Sometimes, for example, individual privacy must be compromised for the public good. In Privacy in the Information Age, author Fred Cate offers the following examples:
"What parent would not want to know if her child's babysitter had been convicted for child abuse? Similarly, what store owner would not want to know whether a clerk was a kleptomaniac? What patient would not want to know whether his physician had a history of malpractice? What man or woman would not want to know if a potential sex partner had a sexually transmitted disease? What airline would not want to know if its pilots were subject to epileptic seizures?"
The answers to these questions, provided by our government, society, and you, may dictate that some of your personal data must be made available. Lumeria will provide the tools to help you comply with these requirements, but inevitably, the responsibility will fall upon the shoulder of the individual. Ultimately, Lumeria's system will be designed such that even Lumeria, and its employees, will not have access to your data without your consent. Consequently, if the government subpoenas your information, Lumeria would only be able to turn over garbage without your key to decrypt it.
As a general statement of business policy, we believe that the individual's right to privacy includes the ability
- to view, in its entirety, the information collected about its owner;
- to delete the information collected;
- to identify every entity (especially when that entity comes into contact with the individual) who has accessed, or has access to, the information and their stated purpose for doing so;
- to determine who will and will not have access to this information;
- to derive value from the use of this information.
Please keep in mind that in any transaction or conversation with another entity, the merchant or other party has an equal right to the transaction's information as you. Although many transactions can be conducted anonymously, your right to privacy does not extend to controlling whatever data to which the other party has access unless all parties involved have previously established an agreement about how the data can be used.
Finally, as of today, there is an enormous amount of data about you that exists in the hands of the government, insurers, hospitals, banks, publishers, list brokers, and much, much more that is not currently your property and which you may not be able to control, manage, or receive any benefit. Unlike Big Brother in 1984, we cannot change the past, only the future.
