NCJ Number
224704
Journal
Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice Volume: 50 Issue: 3 Dated: June 2008 Pages: 331-347
Date Published
June 2008
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This article examines the Supreme Court of Canada's position that reasonable expectations of privacy in informational spaces can be protected by focusing on the protection of the information itself.
Abstract
The findings conclude that as more public and private lives migrate to virtual spaces, it is essential that the courts reinvigorate the legal protection of privacy as a social value; and a good starting point would be to pay attention to the lessons to be gleaned from the social sciences research on privacy. The article explores social science research studies that have examined the behavior of young people in online spaces, to see whether or not the test being used by the Court is consistent with what is known about young people's online experiences and expectations. The article argues that the test fails to acknowledge that online spaces are social spaces, and that the social negotiation of privacy is present even when people have digitized trails of their activities behind them. By focusing on the informational aspect of the transaction, the Court runs the risk of marginalizing the broader social and political concerns that have traditionally been embedded in the reasonable expectation of privacy test, making it difficult to continue to protect people from surveillance technologies that negatively affect their dignity, autonomy, and social freedom. Notes and references