Human rights in an information age : a philosophical analysis / Gregory J. Walters.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : The information age revolution -- Purpose and methodology -- Three ethical challenges of Canadian Informaiton Highway Policy -- Aims and terminological presuppositions -- The conceptual importance of information to human rights -- Philosophical parameters and thesis -- Structure of the book -- The Philosophical framework : The information age in the context of modernity -- Human rights in the information age -- Information highway policy and e-commerce strategy : The public policy product cycle -- Historical and sociological specification of Canadian Communications Policy -- Industry Canada and the Information Highway Advisory Council -- IHAC policy phase I: 1993-95 -- IHAC policy phase II: 1996-98 -- IHAC policy phase III: the Canadian electronic commerce strategy -- Methodological and ethical analysis -- The information economy, work, and productive agency : Productive agency, work, and human capital -- Two justifications of private property -- Inequality and the restriction of property rights -- The global situation: the information economy -- The North American situation -- The information economy and the community of rights -- Privacy and security policy: the historical solution : The global situation -- The Canadian situation -- Conclusion -- Privacy and security: an ethical analysis : Surveying our technological situation -- Legal, social science, and philosophical conceptions of privacy -- Action theory and the ethical justification of privacy rights -- Privacy and security policy in the light of the principle of human rights -- Conclusion -- Information warfare : The 'revolution in military affairs' -- Information warfare: definitions and conceptions -- Global surveillance practices: the ECHELON Network -- Strategic information warfare rising -- Information warfare and international human rights law -- Information warfare and the principle of generic consistency -- A 'just' information war? -- Is 'perpetual peace' possible in the information age? -- Conclusion -- Information warfare and deterrence : Information warfare policy: clarifying the terms of the debate -- Instrumental rationality, reasonableness, and motivation -- Strategic information warfare deterrence and the prisoner's dilemma -- Rethinking policy alternatives for the information age -- Conclusion -- Conclusions: towards a global community of rights in the information age.

"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."--Jacket

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