Human Rights in an Information Age : A

How can we balance new information technology practices with human rights? In Human Rights in an Information Age, Gregory Walters analyses Canadian and global information highway policy and practices regarding the Internet, e-commerce, public health and safety, privacy and security, and information warfare from a philosophical, human rights framework that views freedom and well-being as the necessary conditions of human action. Walters situates the information age revolution within the broader historical and technological situation of modernity. Drawing on the action-based philosophical human rights framework of Alan Gewirth, Walters applies the Principle of Generic Consistency to a host of policy issues, and argues that values of mutuality, trust, and social solidarity are increasingly vital to the promotion and protection of human dignity and human rights in the information age.

Gregory J. Walters is Professor of Ethics in the Faculties of Theology and Philosophy at Saint Paul University.

Foreword	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Abbreviations	p. xvii
Introduction	p. 3
The Information Age Revolution	p. 4
Purpose and Methodology	p. 10
Three Ethical Challenges of Canadian Information Highway Policy	p. 10
Aims and Terminological Presuppositions	p. 14
The Conceptual Importance of Information to Human Rights	p. 18
Philosophical Parameters and Thesis	p. 21
Structure of the Book	p. 23
The Philosophical Framework	p. 26
The Information Age in the Context of Modernity	p. 26
Human Rights in an Information Age	p. 32
Information Highway Policy and E-Commerce Strategy	p. 53
The Public Policy Product Cycle	p. 53
Historical and Sociological Specification of Canadian Communications Policy	p. 55
Industry Canada and the Information Highway Advisory Council	p. 60
IHAC Policy Phase I: 1993-95	p. 61
IHAC Policy Phase II: 1996-98	p. 67
IHAC Policy Phase III: The Canadian Electronic Commerce Strategy	p. 69
Methodological and Ethical Analysis	p. 72
The Informational Economy, Work, and Productive Agency	p. 80
Productive Agency, Work, and Human Capital	p. 81
Two Justifications of Private Property	p. 86
Inequality and the Restriction of Property Rights	p. 89
The Global Situation: The Informational Economy	p. 93
The North American Situation	p. 102
The Informational Economy and the Community of Rights	p. 116
Privacy and Security Policy: The Historical Situation	p. 117
The Global Situation	p. 117
The Canadian Situation	p. 125
Conclusion	p. 147
Privacy and Security: An Ethical Analysis	p. 150
Surveying Our Technological Situation	p. 151
Legal, Social Science, and Philosophical Conceptions of Privacy	p. 157
Action Theory and the Ethical Justification of Privacy Rights	p. 164
Privacy and Security Policy in the Light of the Principle of Human Rights	p. 165
Conclusion	p. 183
Information Warfare	p. 187
The 'Revolution in Military Affairs'	p. 188
Information Warfare: Definitions and Conceptions	p. 190
Global Surveillance Practices: The ECHELON Network	p. 196
Strategic Information Warfare Rising	p. 199
Information Warfare and International Human Rights Law	p. 201
Information Warfare and the Principle of Generic Consistency	p. 204
A 'Just' Information War?	p. 213
Is 'Perpetual Peace' Possible in the Information Age?	p. 214
Conclusion	p. 216
Information Warfare and Deterrence	p. 218
Information Warfare Policy: Clarifying the Terms of the Debate	p. 219
Instrumental Rationality, Reasonableness, and Motivation	p. 221
Strategic Information Warfare Deterrence and the Prisoner's Dilemma	p. 225
Rethinking Policy Alternatives for the Information Age	p. 231
Conclusion	p. 236
Conclusion: Towards a Global Community of Rights in the Information Age	p. 238
Notes	p. 255
References	p. 277
Index	p. 313
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Human Rights in an Information Age : A Philosophical Analysis

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