Lessons from the Identity Trail: Anonymity, Privacy and Identity in a Networked Society

During the past decade, rapid developments in information and communications technology have transformed key social, commercial and political realities. Within that same time period, working at something less than internet speed, much of the academic and policy debates arising from these new and emerging technologies have been fragmented. There have been few examples of interdisciplinary dialogue about the potential for anonymity and privacy in a networked society. Lessons from the Identity Trail fills that gap, and examines key questions about anonymity, privacy and identity in an environment that increasingly automates the collection of personal information and uses surveillance to reduce corporate and security risks.

This project has been informed by the results of a multi-million dollar research project that has brought together a distinguished array of philosophers, ethicists, feminists, cognitive scientists, lawyers, cryptographers, engineers, policy analysts, government policy makers and privacy experts. Working collaboratively over a four-year period and participating in an iterative process designed to maximize the potential for interdisciplinary discussion and feedback through a series of workshops and peer review, the authors have integrated crucial public policy themes with the most recent research outcomes.

Ian Kerr holds a three-way appointment in the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Medicine and the Department of Philosophy at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Kerr teaches in the areas of moral philosophy and applied ethics, internet and ecommerce law, contract law and legal theory. He has published extensively in journals on ethical and legal aspects of digital copyright, automated electronic commerce, artificial intelligence, cybercrime, nanotechnology, internet regulation, ISP and intermediary liability, and online defamation. He is also the co-author of Managing the Law (Prentice Hall).

Carole Lucock is the project manager of On the Identity Trail, as well as a doctoral candidate at the Faculty of Law, University of Ottawa. She was Senior Legal Counsel and Chief Privacy Officer with the Canadian Medical Association, a not-for-profit corporation where she has acted as counsel for 15 years. During her tenure with CMA, in addition to corporate legal work, Ms. Lucock worked on numerous health and medical profession policy files and was very active in matters concerning health information privacy. She obtained her LL.B from Queens University and recently completed her LL.M, with a concentration in law and technology, at the University of Ottawa. Her research interests include the intersection of privacy, anonymity and identity, and the potential distinctions between imposed versus assumed anonymity.

Valerie Steeves is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of Ottawa in Ottawa, Canada and currently a member of the Canadian Standards Association's Technical Committee on Privacy and the Chair of the National Privacy Coalition. She is an active participant in the privacy policy making process in Canada and has appeared as an expert witness before a number of Parliamentary Committees regarding privacy legislation. Her main areas of research is human rights and technology, and has written and spoken extensively on privacy from a human rights perspective. Dr. Steeves has also authored a number of award-winning educational games designed to teach children how to protect their human rights in cyberspace.