Beyond Big Brother: Is Privacy Dead - Assignment Example

Beyond Big Brother: Is Privacy Dead? With the current and forthcoming technology, there is a rampant destruction of privacy in our daily lives. Governments and businesses threaten to make informational privacy obsolete (Froomkin 1461). The government has yet to give response to current technology; these include growing surveillance in public places, deployment of facial recognition technology, routine collection of transactional data. Deployment of facial recognition technology and other biometrics, vehicle tracking, cell phone tracking, satellite monitor, internet from cookies to “click trails”, workplace surveillance, intellectual property protecting “snitchware”, hardware-based identifiers, and sense enhanced searches that allows observers to see through everything from walls to clothes (Froomkin 1461). Such technologies cumulatively make privacy obsolete in our day to day activities. There are also legal responses that affect privacy in our society; it makes our lives permeable. Examples of these laws are self-regulation, privacy-enhancing technologies, data protecting laws, and property-rights based solutions in the context of the three structural obstacles on privacy enhancement (Froomkin 1461). Despite the great efforts to destroy privacy, there are still some ways to retain it. Westin (1967) till now present the best theories of privacy. According to him, privacy is referred to as "the claim of individuals,, groups or institutions to determine for themselves when, how and to what extent" of information about them is communicated to others. It can also be described as "the voluntary and temporary withdrawal of a person from the general society through physical and psychological means" (Marguilis 10). Weston claims that privacy is of great importance as it enables us to adjust emotionally to day-to-day activities. Privacy can be termed as a dynamic process or a monotonic function. As a dynamic process, it is regulated so that it is sufficient to serve momentary needs, as well as role requirements (Marguilis 10). While, in a monotonic function, its intensity is evaluated; whether a person can have too little, sufficient, or too much privacy (Marguilis 10). Westin address privacy to the Western democracy as a social-political value; its sufficiency is not definite; however, it is a means of achieving self-realization. He describes four states of privacy; solitude, intimacy, anonymity and reserve. Solitude is the state of being free from observation of others, Intimacy is the seclusion of a small group or so as to achieve a frank, close relationship, Anonymity is the freedom from identification and surveillance in public places or public acts while Reserve is the desire to conceal information from others (Marguilis 10). Furthermore, Westin reveals the four functions of privacy. One of them is personal autonomy that refers to the avoidance of being manipulated, exposed or dominated by others. Secondly, it provides emotional release from tensions of daily life such as emotional states, role demands, and management of losses, minor deviances, and bodily functions. In general, privacy provides a momentary time out from social demands we daily experience. Another function of privacy is self-evaluation where one integrates his or her experience patterns that are meaningful into plus bring input in individuality of events. Finally, it brings limited and protected communication. Limited communication comes by when setting interpersonal boundaries while, protected communication enables one to share information with people one can trust. Privacy can be described as dead in the society today. According to surveillance, The government is making information privacy obsolete. Local, state and federal officials try to identify the wisdom of placing public records online, as a move to make them accessible freely over the Internet (Nissenbaum 103). Information of Citizens, such as "arrest records, marriage information, driving records, property ownership, birth, death, public schools information, zoning and community planning records,"in order to serve the unquestionable records of open government, (Nissenbaum 103). Moving these records online offers the discomfort, even to government officials, as well as advocate organizations such as the National Network to End Domestic Violence and the American Civil Liberties Union (Nissenbaum 103). Another instance of privacy being obsolete is computer profiling and data mining. Most people are aware that all their commercial activities are digitally recorded. Activities such as buying with credit cards, placing online orders, using frequent shopper cards, visiting and registering certain websites, and subscribing to magazines leave digital trails that are stored away in large databases somewhere (Nissenbaum 103). Such data is migrated and in data warehouses where it is organized and stored. Some companies have access to this kind of information which is lucrative to their businesses. Thirdly is through Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags where tiny chips are implanted to virtually anything; including milk cartons, washing machines, clothes, other livestock products, and it is anticipated one day, people are able to broadcast information to broadcast information to radio signal scanners up to ten feet away (Nissenbaum 104). However, in this case, there is no definite streamlining of the stocking, warehousing and delivery of goods as well as preventing theft or another loss (Nissenbaum 103). An example of privacy violation is through the introduction of national identity cards and the biometric passports. In this case the expansion of the International DNA database and cross-departmental sharing personal data raises a number of privacy issues ( Robinson, Potoglou, Kim, Burge, Warnes 3) This led to the depletion of human rights where the police by the exercise of the stop-and-search by the police. Companies such as Axicom sell information, that is sometimes organized by individual profiles to a variety of parties, "spawning product, subscription, credit card and mortgage offers, as well as annoying phone solicitations, special attention at airport security and targeted banner, and pop-up advertisements" (Nissenbaum 103. This kind of information may be written in the media or websites. State supreme courts with jurisdiction over court records, are mindful of results raised by advocates of victims of domestic violence, plus other crimes among others point out the dangers inherent in these new levels of accessibility (Nissenbaum 103). This is paradoxical as these records are publicly available; it is merely administrative computerizing them and placing them online. This serves as a move to greater efficiency in dispensing information. Most of us want to keep our deepest secrets, and revealing them can cause a personal catastrophe. We need to question the meaning of privacy in our daily life. Can something be termed as “private” if one or two people know about it (Strahilevitz 2)? Privacy can be input into different terms in the society today; therefore there needs to be a definite methodology of describing privacy. In the United States, the private law is broad and vague, and this is one of the main reasons that privacy is not dead. Secondly, there are other activities that won’t be recorded on one’s credit card or national identification cards. The American courts do not have a coherent, and regular method for identifying if an individual expects a reasonable rate of of privacy in relation a specific fact that has been shared with one or more persons (Strahilevitz 4). This proves that the level of privacy cannot be clearly determined is such a situation. However, social networking has grown to become a significant factor in spreading information. Using insights from social network helps courts evaluate privacy in a more accurate and transparent matter. Some facts remain solitude, but they become private when shared with others to some context. While in certain situations, private information such as shameful deeds or sensitive medical information cease to be private when shared with others. Works Cited Read More