Headline, April 03 2024/ ''' TRUE CONSENT TRIM '''

''' TRUE CONSENT

 TRIM ''' 

QUOTE OF THE DAY - W. V. QUINE : '' THEORIES AND THINGS'' [1981]  :

'' Physics investigates the essential nature of the world, and biology describes a local bump. Psychology, human psychology, describes a bump on the bump.''

WHAT DOES TRUE CONSENT LOOK LIKE FOR STUDENTS ? A man with a squeegee cleans your windshield while your car is stopped and then asks for money. Do you owe him anything? Most people would say no.

NOW you get your haircut. Do you owe the barber anything? Just about everyone would say yes.

These two cases aren't entirely different. In both cases a service was rendered without an express agreement between the parties.

The difference is mostly a matter of custom. Society expects that when we sit down in a barber chair, we're implicitly agreeing to exchange money for a shearing.

There's no such expectation about windshield cleaning, unless the place we stop happens to be carwash.

What constitutes consent is an unsettled aspect of law, and there are big economic implications. The examples above are about implied consent. 

There are also debates about express consent, which seems like it would be cut and dried but actually isn't.

There are several spheres of life where questions of consent are bubbling up. One is in medical care.

I wrote last year about the recently settled lawsuit brought by the family of Henrietta Lacks, the woman whose ''immortal'' cells were used without her knowledge or consent in research that led to the development of treatments for diseases including cancer, Parkinson's and the flu.

A second sphere is the capture and use of your personal data, which a lot of us expressly allow without even thinking much. A third is drunken driving :

Many states have laws that say getting a driver's license constitutes an agreement to have your blood tested for alcohol content if a police officer suspects you're inebriated.

Defense lawyers, and many civil libertarians, argue that's a violation of the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizure by the government.

I'LL FOCUS on the use of our personal data, since it's a pervasive problem. To comply with privacy laws, websites won't share your data without your express agreement. But who reads the fine print before clicking OK? Anybody?

TRUE CONSENT requires two things, understanding and autonomy, Joseph Turow, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, told me.

Mr. Turow and three fellow researchers wrote a paper on the topic that was published last year in The International Journal of Communication. 

''You really can't consent to something unless you understand it,'' he said. '' You also have to feel that you have autonomy to consent. That there's a point to it. That you can do something useful by consenting or not consenting.''

Most of the time one or both of those conditions are missing. Mr. Turow said.

'' That where we came up with the idea of resignation. It's the notion of wanting something to happen but believing that it can't. We found that a huge percentage of people are resigned when it comes to their data.''

I admitted to him that I'm in that majority. In response, he told me what happened to him when he ordered a smart TV and the installers got to the part where customers have a chance to protect their personal data, or not.

'' One of the technicians said to the other, '' Just agree to all the terms,'' Mr. Turow told me. '' I asked him to wait.''

As a specialist in the field Mr. Turow figured he would read the disclosures in full and make considered choices.

It was so convoluted that he needed a phone agent's help. '' That's just one device,'' he said. '' How could you do this for everything else you own?''

The Honour and Serving of the Latest Global Operational Research on True Consent, Law and Data, continues. The World Students Society thanks author Peter Coy.

With most respectful dedication to the Global Founder Framers of The World Students Society - the exclusive and eternal ownership of every student in the world and then Students, Professors and Teachers of the world.

See You all prepare for Great Global Elections on !WOW! - for every subject in the world :  wssciw.blogspot.com and Twitter X !E-WOW! - The Ecosystem 2011 :

Good Night and God Bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless