Sacred Heart University DigitalCommons@SHU Computer Science & Information Technology Computer Science & Information Technology Faculty Publications 3-2002 Some Ethical Reflections on Cyberstalking Frances Grodzinsky Sacred Heart University, [email protected] Herman T. Tavani Rivier College Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.sacredheart.edu/computersci_fac Part of the Business Law, Public Responsibility, and Ethics Commons, Legal Ethics and Professional Responsibility Commons, and the Privacy Law Commons Recommended Citation Grodzinsky, Frances, Tavani, Herman T. "Some Ethical Reflections on Cyberstalking." ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society 32.1 (2002): 22-32. This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Computer Science & Information Technology at DigitalCommons@SHU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Computer Science & Information Technology Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@SHU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Some Ethical Reflections on Cyberstalking Frances S. Grodzinsky Sacred Heart University has come to be associated with one individual ("the <grodzinskyf@sacredhearcedu> stalker ~) clandestinely tracking the movement and whereabouts of an another individual or individuals Herman T. Tavani ("the stalkee[s]~). Rivier College <[email protected]> Cyberstalking can be understood as a form of behav- ior in which certain types of stalking-related activi- ties, which in the past have occurred in physical space, Abstract are extended to the online world. On the one hand, The present study examines • range of moral issues asso- we do not wish to claim that cyberstalking is a new ciated with recent cyberstalking cases. Particular atten- kind of crime or that it is a "genuine computer crime" tion is centered on the Amy Boyer/Liam Youens case of (see Tavani, 2000). On the other hand, we believe cyberstalking, which raises a host of considerations that that the Internet has made a relevant difference be- we believe have a significant impact for ethical behavior cause of the way stalking activities can now be carried on the Internet. Among the questions we consider are out (see Grodzinsky and Tavani, 2001). For example, those having to do with personal privacy and the use of Internet stalkers can operate anonymously or certain kinds of Internet search facilities to stalk indi- pseudononymously while online. In addition, a viduals in cyberspace. Also considered are questions hav- cyberstalker can stalk one or more individuals from ing to do with legal liability and (possible) moral re- the comfort of his living room, and thus not have to sponsibility that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have venture out into the physical world to carry out his for stalking crimes that occur in their %pace" on the task. So Internet technology has made possible cer- Internet. Finall~ we examine issues of moral responsi- tain modes of stalking that would not have been pos- bility for individual online users to determine which ob- sible in the pre-Internet era. ligations, if any, they might have to inform persons who are targeted by cyberstalkers, when it is in their power Many people are concerned about the kind and the tO do so. number of stalking-related activities that now occur in cyberspace. There are many reasons why these in- Keywords dividuals would seem justified in their concern. Be- Cyberstalking, personal privacy, search engines, ISPs, cause stalking crimes are not fully understood in terms moral responsibility, and duty to assist of their conceptual boundaries and their implications, it is that much more difficult to understand clearly 1. INTRODUCTION: STALKING ACTIVITIES what it would mean to stalk someone in cyberspace. IN CYBERSPACE In the cyber-realm, for example, there are no physi- What exactly is cyberstalking, and how exactly do cal-space criteria that are strictly analogous to those stalking incidents in cyberspace raise concerns for eth- in physical space. ics? In answering these questions, we begin with a definition of stalking in general. According to Webster's One difficulty in understanding some of the essential New World Dictionary of the American Language, one features of cyberstalking crimes is that these crimes definition of stalking is ~to pursue or approach game, sometimes border on, and thus become confused with, an enemy, etc. stealthily, as from cover." In an ex- broader forms of "harassment crimes." Consider a re- tended sense of stalking, as applied to criminal ac- cent incident involving twenty-year old Christian tivities involving human beings, a "stalking activity" Hunold, who was charged with terrorizing Timothy 22 Computers and Society, March 2002 McGillicuddy, principal of a high school in the US. see why this particular case would seem to be a clear Hunold constructed a Web site that included "hit lists" instance of cyberstalking. We will also see why the of teachers and students at the school, and a picture Amy Boyer case raises a range of ethical issues that are of the school that was displayed through "the cross philosophically interesting. hairs of a rifle". On that site, Hunold, under various pseudonyms, corresponded with 40 of the 215 eighth 2. THE AMY BOYER CASE: SOME ETHICAL graders in the school. He then began to make threats IMPLICATIONS to the victims in Massachusetts who did not know that they were actually dealing with a person who On October 15, 1999, Amy Boyer, a twenty-year-old lived in Missouri ("The Web's Dark Side ~, 2000). Is resident of Nashua, NH, was murdered by a young man this behavior a form of cyberstalking or is it ~harass- who had stalked her via the Internet. The stalker, Liam ment in cyberspace?" Youens, was able to carry out most of the stalking activi- ties that eventually led to Boyer's death by using a vari- The case of Randi Barber and Gary Dellapenta illus- ety of tools available to him online. Through the use of trates an incident in which the stalker himself en- standard Internet search facilities, for example, Youens gaged others to stalk the intended victim in physical gathered information about Boyer that was readily ac- space. In 1996, Barber met Dellapenta, a security cessible from databases available to online search requests. guard, through a friend. Although Dellapenta wanted A series of Internet searches on the name "Amy Boyer" a relationship with Barber, she spurned his advances. yielded several pieces of information about Boyer, which A few months later, Barber began to receive phone Youens could then piece together to track down his vic- solicitations from men on her telephone answering tim. Through the use of certain tools available to any machine; and in one case, a "solicitor ~ actually ap- Internet user, he was able to find out where Boyer lived, peared at the door of her residence. Because she had where she worked, what kind of vehicle she drove, etc. In never used a computer or had never interacted with addition to using Internet search-related tools to acquire the Internet, Barber had no idea how potentially dan- personal information about Boyer, Youens was also able gerous her situation was. For example, Barber was to use other kinds of online tools, provided by Internet not aware that Dellapenta had actually assumed her Service Providers (ISPs), to construct two Web sites. On identity in various Internet chat rooms, when solicit- one site, he posted personal information about Boyer, ing "kinky sex". Anonymity and pseudonymity tools, including her picture, and on another the other site he available to any Internet user, allowed Dellapenta to described, in explicit detail, his plans to murder Boyer. represent himself as Barber, via screen names such as a "playfulkitty4U" and "kinkygal30". His access to The Amy Boyer case has raised a number of controversial chat rooms and message boards enabled him to dis- questions, many of which would seem to have significant seminate information about Barber to Internet users moral implications for cyberspace. One question at issue around the globe. Barber became aware of what was here is whether there really is anything special about going on only after she asked one caller why he was Boyer's murder, including the stalking activities that led phoning her. The caller's answer both shocked and to her eventual death. In response to the Boyer inddent, frightened her. Barber's anonymous cyberstalker had philosophers taking a position that Deborah Johnson managed to unleash a chain of threatening events with (2001) describes as the ~traditionalist" view might argue a few clicks of a mouse (Foote, 1999). Again, we can that there is nothing philosophically or morally interest- ask whether the Barber/Dellapenta case is truly ing about cyberstalking in general, or the Amy Boyer cyberstalking instead of a more general instance of case in particular. A traditionalist would point out, for h ar assm en t example, that ~murder is murder," and that, unfortu- nately, several homicides occur each day. On this view, Thus far we have described some particular cases that whether a murderer uses a computing device that in- have been described as cyberstalking activities. We duded Internet tools to assist in carrying out a particular have also seen why, in these particular cases, it was murder would seem irrelevant; or at least it would not difficult to separate out certain harassment activities intuitively seem to be a factor that makes a qualitative (in general) from stalking behavior in particular. In difference in the carrying out of a crime such as homi- the next section we focus our attention on a specific cide. A traditionalist might also take the position that case of Internet stalking involving Amy Boyer. We will there is nothing special about cyberstalking incidents in Computers and Society, March 2002 23 general -- irrespective of whether or not those incidents cal and social issues, ranging from those of privacy and result in the death of the victims -- since stalking activi- securit)~ free speech and censorship to more general ques- ties have had a long history of occurrence in the "off- tions involving moral responsibility and legal liability line" world.