PrepTest 102 - Section 1 - Passage 1 - Question 6

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Most office workers assume that the messages they send to each other via electronic mail are as private as a telephone call or a face-to-face meeting. ████ ██████████ ██ ██████ ████████ ██ ██ ███████ ██ ████ █████ ███ ██ ████████ ██ █████████ ██ ███████ █████████████ ██ █████████ ████████████ ██ ████ ████ █████ ██ █ █████████████ █████████████████ ███ ██ █████ █████ █████████ ██████████ █████ ██ █████ ███ ████████ ██ ███ ███████ ██████████ ████ █████████████ ██████ ██ ███ ███████ ██ ███ ██ ███ ████ ███████████ █████ ██████ ██ ███ ██████████ ████

Intro to Issue · No clear rules on email privacy

Office workers wrongly assume that their emails are private.

Public Sector (Government) · Are government emails private?

If yes, then they can destroy them and deny public access.

Proposition · Yes, because there are paper versions that the public can access

Opposition · No, because the paper versions are incomplete; emails contain more information

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Private Sector (Business) · Are private sector employees's emails private?

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Example · Not private

Two employees talk shit over email about their boss. Boss finds out. Fires them. Judge rules in favor of company because the computers were company property hence boss had right to read anything on it.

Law · No privacy for "inside" interception

Law sometimes protects against third party eavesdropping but not when the third party is an "insider." So the police (outsider) can't eavesdrop on you but your boss (insider) can.

Exception · Reasonable expectation of privacy

If you have a reasonable expectation of privacy, then privacy could trump. But there is no absolute guarantee.

Solution · Encrypt messages

If you're an employee and want privacy, you may just have to encrypt your emails. But that's a huge pain in the butt.

Passage Style

Critique or debate

Problem-analysis

Given the information in the ████████ █████ ███ ██ ███ █████████ ████████████ ██████ ██ █████ ██████ ██ ██████

A court rules ████ █ ██████████ ████████ ████████ ██ ████████ ███ ██████████ ████ ██ ███ ██ ███ ████████ ████ ██████████

We have no reason to think this wouldn’t occur. A court might agree with the opponents of government deletion of email.

A private-sector employer ██ █████ ██████ ███ ███████████ ██ ██████ █████████ ████████████ ██ █████ ███ █████████ █████████ ███████████ ███████████ █████ █████ ███████████

We have no reason to think this wouldn’t occur. The author notes that in many areas it’s illegal for an employer to eavesdrop on telephone calls.

11%

A court upholds ███ █████ ██ █ ██████████ ██████ ██ ███████ ████ █████ ███ ██████████ ████████ ██ ███ ████████ ██████████

We have some evidence a court wouldn’t allow a government to destroy paper versions of its documents. The author indicates that destruction of the government’s paper versions is forbidden.

69%

A court upholds █ ██████████████ ██████████ █████ ██ ███████ ████████ ████ ███████ █████████ ████ ███ █████████ ████████ ██████████ ████ ███████

We have no reason to think this wouldn’t happen. In fact, (D) describes an outcome that aligns with the outcome in the court case described in P3.

A court rules ██ █████ ██ █ ██████████████ ████████ █████ ██████████ ██████ ████ ████████ ██████████ ████ █████ ███ ██ █████████ ███ █████ █████ ███ ████████ ███ █████████████ ███████████ ███████████ ███ ██████████ █████

We have no reason to think this wouldn’t happen. If the supervisor stated that the mail wouldn’t be monitored, that arguably creates a “reasonable expectation” of privacy. And in that case, court might find the employees’ communications should be considered private.

13%

PrepTest 102 - Section 1 - Passage 1 - Question 6

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