Fundamentals of Privacy Policy and practice

• The 4th ammendment to the US constitution:
  

  The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

• Privacy: the right to be left alone.
• Some good description on the legal basis of privacy (from a book online):

  In 1890, Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis first identified the right to privacy.1 After exploring the nature and scope of the right to privacy, they concluded that "[i]t is the unwarranted invasion of individual privacy which is reprehended, and to be, so far as possible, prevented." Common law privacy law gradually evolved to mean the right to enjoy life -- "the right to be left alone."

  In 1960, a distinguished legal commentator contributed to the development of privacy law when he asserted that while no right to privacy existed under United States constitutional law, various tortious invasions of privacy are recognized under state common law. Today, the tort of "invasion of privacy" consists of four separate and distinct rights, as outlined in the Restatement (Second) of Torts, Section 652A:

  1. the unreasonable intrusion upon the seclusion of another;
  2. the appropriation of another's name or likeness;
  3. the unreasonable publicity given to another's private life; and
  4. publicity that unreasonably places another in a false light before the public
  
  
• We see privacy policies enacted and enforced on the Internet. Examples include:
  • The P3P
  • OECD's Privacy Policy Statement Generator
  • The DMA's privacy generator (login required)