← Chapter 13
Applied Ethics · Chapter 13

Where Does It Travel? The Contextual Integrity Router

Nissenbaum’s insight is that privacy is not secrecy but appropriate flow: a fact is governed by the norms of the context in which it arose. Pick a piece of information, send it somewhere new, and toggle the excuses institutions actually use — a signed form, a de-identification step, a vendor contract. Watch the lawful verdict and the appropriate verdict separate. Then strip the identifiers and see how little that buys.
1 · The information
2 · Where it is going next
3 · The institution’s defence
The de-identification meter

Safe Harbor removed the names. Decide what is left in the file, and watch how many Americans could still be the person in this row.

Geography
Date of birth
Everything else left in the row
People in the United States who could be this row
Contextual integrity
Is it lawful?
Is it appropriate?
The two tests
Which of the three words is at stake?
What actually happened