Differences between Panopticon and a Plague Stricken Town - Assignment Example

Computer Ethics Introduction Panopticon is a strategy that is designed to pervade the society in bid of making power much more economic and effective by aiming at developing the economic, spreading education and generally improving the public morality in relation to socialization. This idea (panopticon) takes in the place of bodies’ subordination which increases power utility and at the same time dispensing with the desire for a prince. Panopticon is also a representation of how discipline and punishment cultures work tentatively in the current modern societies. Hence, it portrays a sequence of power as exercised since by taking a look at the panopticon plan, a realization of how the processes of operation of observations and examinations are realized. Various measures are demonstrated to have been taken against the plague. These included: partitioning of towns or spaces and sealing off houses, regular inspections and registration, quarantine and purification processes e.t.c. For instance, lepers were excluded from the society with a reason of creating pure communities. Explain the similarities and differences between the Panopticon and the plague stricken town. a) Similarities between Panopticon and a Plague stricken town Ideologies of Panopticon and a plague stricken town are ideologies that exploit the use of experimentations to come up with control measures on the technicalities and preventive ways necessary to subvert their spread. Both the panopticon and plague stricken towns have institutions of imprecise supervision and monitoring hence not leading to effective implementations of its intended strategies. These two architectures (the Panopticon and plague) of the internet protocols share similar general understanding of the involved power relationships since they both acquire their power as generated from information/ data and conceptual knowledge from object of surveillance sources by being expected to openly present themselves and their partaking. Under both situations (the Panopticon and the plague stricken towns), information is considered very fundamental in the performance of proper supervisions as expected of the supervisors themselves. Basic information may lead to shallow performance as opposed to in-depth research and findings’ information which if effectively used will lead to total resolution of any involvedness that may occur thereafter. Additionally, objects (in both cases) are deprived of privacy. b) Differences between Panopticon and a Plague stricken town In the first place, panopticon is regarded as a privileged place for experiments based on men and for performing analysis with total certainty in the transformations that can be obtained from them. Contrary, plague in town requires a strict spatial partitioning with prohibition to leave the town. In plague stricken town, there is existence of exceptional situations against extraordinary evil since power is mobilized. While in panopticon, the concept of generalized model of functioning that defines power relations as a subject of daily’s life of men, is applied. Plague makes itself present and visible everywhere, hence rapidly experienced in the surrounding. While panopticon only presents itself as a diagram of mechanisms thus requiring experienced observation by the experts. Plague is able to invent new mechanisms that enable it to separate; partition constructs, and immobilizes perfect society. However, panopticon is a diagram of mechanisms of a single power reduced to an ideal form, with its functioning presented as pure architectural and optical systems. Plague imposes ideal functioning that is in the final analysis as an evil which it combats to simple dualisms of life and death. On the other hand, panopticon is a figure of political technology which has to be detached from any specific use. Privacy is affiliated to security, an aspect that there are conflicts between the interests of; an individual and another; an individual and a group; a group and an individual; and lastly a group and another group. The potential architecture, i.e., the code, of the Internet as explicated by Lessig User empowerment models do impact to a larger extent on the Internet foundation and architectural design. The only two examples of such empowerment models include: network prosumer model which is a natural step applied by users empowerment and participatory models which results to new types of Internet architecture and, prosumer model which is basically based on the desire of collective expression of information. Lessig, as expressed, demonstrates that Internet and its general architecture, has the potential to threaten the privacy of free communications (either by speech between two interlinked node over the network) if not promptly kept under controls, monitoring and security. Therefore, there is need to balance the various controlling forces. Lessig still added that there is need for intervention in Internet so as to prevent the Sovietization of personal and private life. Consequently, such interventions with the code will make internet secure. Internet users are expected to be part of the protocol code and architecture development which help in the controls of the internet, by influencing the nature and generally the how the code should be. In this bid therefore, publications of the software codes which controls the Net is necessary so as to enable all internet users to be in possession and control of their use rather than the code-developing corporations as is the case currently. It is projected therefore that the future Internet graphs representations will incorporate information about the similarity level of user profiles based on the adoption of metrics which will be able to track social capital evolutions. Why privacy is important Privacy is a subject in internet security that takes into considerations both personally identifying information and non-personally identifying information. Personally identifying information means any information relevant in the identification of any person i.e. age, residential or physical address. Information privacy on the other hand is the ability by and of an individual or a certain group(s) to obstruct information or data about themselves from reaching he/she/they don’t wish to get certain of the their content. Privacy and anonymity are in some situations related; however, privacy is often valued by common figures or individuals. Therefore, internet privacy entails the right and mandate one has over his/her personal privacy concerning information storage, repurposing, its provision to third parties, and display of information pertaining any person on the internet protocol. Among the measures that threaten internet privacy are: i. Cookies and Spyware Installation of cookies and spyware on desk top PSs without administrators’ permission always deliver back information to various companies which thereafter can be used to understand web browsing activities of users and for malicious activities. Additionally, theage.com.au is a software application which automatically installs cookies on computers. ii. Workplace Monitoring Larger organizations and institutions have set up policies which govern how internet and email applications are used through monitoring systems. Principles set up to protect against such malicious activities include; collection of necessary information for the performance of an activity, use and disclosure, data quality assurance, data security, openness, anonymity and trans-border data flows. Among the reasons given as to why internet privacy is very important include: i. The need to offer protection to people who make access to internet and their interest in competitive conditions. Among the very basic measures put in place for this include the use of personal user log-in name and encrypted passwords. These two strategies are bound to authenticate the authorized Accounts’ users from anywhere and at any time. Hence giving a 24/7/365 user protection of the already created accounts. ii. The desire to keep particular aspects of one’s life or behavior private out fear of embarrassments incase the information is passed to others. The new Mozilla fire fox search engine is built on an architecture that allows for users to change search interfaces either to general use or to private use. This particular aspect in this search engine therefore meets some users’ desire to have their operations secured from access by others i.e. at cyber places. iii. Under medical grounds, individual’s information of medical history or rather data should be kept very secrete. Medical privacy, conversational discretion from the providers and security of all medical records, is deemed very necessary. For instance, Medical Information Privacy and Security Act (MIPSA) in USA, contains provisions that require accesses to create effective audit trail. As set in other countries too, necessity for medical privacy is recommended. iv. Money transactions, besides all other matters, are also considered as very confidential and should be only to the level as expected by the applicants. In the activity of apply for a credit (for instance) investigations are always allied and the result conclusions are always factual information / data and not assumptions as may be thought of. As may be to the institution used, information requirements may at times investigate into private life style of an applicant that if leaked out may hinder the level of privacy standards of such an individual. With the advent and advancement of internet technology, secure encryptions and decryptions of all secret and personal information should be applicable. Conclusion In a general view of all the discussions above, internet evolution is causing impact by driving for the need to put into considerations real merging internet protocol principals into technological adoption modeling to help future Internet architectures to evolve far and beyond their simple role of providing basic services but also reaching solutions of users, i.e. issues relating to security and privacy matters a discussed in the above sectional developments. Work Cited Nissenbaum, Helen. (1997). Towards an Approach to Privacy in Public: Challenges of Information Technology. Ethics and Behavior 7(3):207-219. Read More