The Impact of Privacy on the Society - Assignment Example

The recording of different aspects of a person’s life can be perceived as having a rather long-established history in human society. Over the years, this has however been undergoing a radical transformational change in the type of data collected, the depth of this information as well as its volume. The effect of this transformation is that individuals in society only get to enjoy what are relatively very low levels of privacy.One of the easiest avenues through which privacy violations can potentially occur is through the internet.

While most systems and websites require that an individual voluntarily provides private information, it is possible for this information to be illegally acquired through phishing and hacking (Bernal, 12-14). The threat to privacy that is posed by phishing websites and hackers is that people in society are now investing in better and increasingly more expensive computer security systems to ensure that their information and data are secure and remain private.Another effect that privacy is seen to be having on privacy is that countries and societies around the world are now clamoring for lawmakers to formulate and implement better privacy laws to protect them.

This was recently brought to a head when it emerges that the United States national security agency had not only put mobile data on the country’s citizens on surveillance in an attempt to try fight terrorism, it had also expanded its surveillance to include millions of individuals around the world and this included the German Chancellor (Bihanic, 165).Ethical ArgumentsReducing privacy in society has raised a number of ethical concerns key of which is the threat to the society’s privacy that is posed by the government (Morley, 205).

Although some of the actions that are routinely taken by the government such as compelling individuals to identify themselves, database profiling, and conducting physical searches on people’s home can be argued to be done with good intentions, some government actions such as genetic testing and surveillance can be deemed as being an infringement on the society’s privacy.Ethical concerns have also been raised over privacy in the society in that in most workplaces, corporations often seek to try and exert a greater degree of control over their employees via the use of a number of surveillance and monitoring practices in what is seen to be a clear violation of the society’s privacy.

Another criticism over the society’s privacy that companies have been faced with pertains to the fact that nowadays, customers are required to provide personal details when making some purchases and this is perceived to be a threat to privacy in the market place (Morley, 205).ConclusionThe protection of privacy in society is not a new subject as it already has an established history in human society. The impact of the reducing levels of privacy in society has necessitated that people invest in better computer security systems in addition to calling for the enactment of better privacy laws to protect their privacy.

Despite the need for increased privacy, a number of ethical concerns have been raised as a result of unnecessary government surveillance and privacy threats in the market as companies force customers to provide personal details when making some purchases.