Is Privacy our right?
Privacy as a right, Is it ok to exercise our privacy? There
are many questions to be asked more importantly are there any answers to those
questions. Let’s assume that there is a general right of privacy for every
citizen in the United States to exercise, do we have the freedom to do so? Without
the NSA being up in our personal lives, it is important to be aware and more important
is to be educated in this issue of privacy. Anything we post online, anything
we share in the virtual world, it is not private or safe.
WHAT IS THE RIGHT TO PRIVACY?
The right to privacy is not mentioned in the Constitution,
but the Supreme Court has said that several of the amendments create this
right. One of the amendments is the Fourth Amendment, which stops the police
and other government agents from searching us or our property without
"probable cause" to believe that we have committed a crime. Other
amendments protect our freedom to make certain decisions about our bodies and
our private lives without interference from the government - which includes the
public schools.
Getting an education is not just about books and grades; we
also need to learn how to participate fully in life so we know our present and
future is protected. Things we post online, things we share with our friends in
this virtual world, is it trustworthy? Is it safe? We blindly trust the system and
share things with our family friends, we share our personal lives our personal
info hoping our friends and family with see it, but there are more people on it
than we know or imagine. Privacy can personally identifying information such as
age, location and other interests this information can identify the person. In today’s
world we are technologically so far ahead, everything is advanced today
compared to 5 years ago. It is in our discretion to balance between privacy and
disclosure. There are a couple of steps in privacy as mention by Alan Westin on
Wikipedia. They are solitude, intimacy, anonymity and reserve all these steps need
to balance and participate. “Each individual is continually engaged in a
personal adjustment process in which he balances the desire for privacy with
the desire for disclosure and communication of himself to others, in light of
the environmental conditions and social norms set by the society in which he
lives. - Alan Westin, Privacy and Freedom, 1968[4]”.
The only way we protect our privacy is by knowledge and
control.
Sources:
I'm an advocate of internet privacy. However, as much as I like to trust the system and freely practice my right to privacy, I don't think we should be naive and become vulnerable. The internet in this day and age is being monitored more severely then we know, and without our consent. Anything you do or share can be captured as record and used against you. Whenever you use the internet, like it or not, you are disclosing your actions.
ReplyDeleteTriet Pham
I thought this was an interesting post. I believe there are many different opinions when it comes to our right to privary as americans. I believe that we can truly define our rights to privacy because they change as society changes. We have allowed our lives to become less private through things like social networking and blogs. We are responsible for a large part of what is put out there about ourselves.
ReplyDeletePrivacy is such a confusing issue for people. So many people seem concerned about companies and the government getting information on us, but what kind of information is it. Even more important; just what can/will they do with it? Seeing the kind of information the average person inputs not much can be done I believe. You might get spam email, but those are easily blocked. Perhaps the government scanned your twitter account to see if you posted anything suspicious. If you didn't why should you worry? I hear stories of the FBI catching child predators with info gathered from emails, facebook, and so on. I suppose if you are a muslim or an immigrant perhaps you have some right to worry, but the average run of the mill american isn't the one in trouble. But if you don't like the idea of the gov seeing what you had for breakfast then don't post it. The internet is far more public than people think it is.
ReplyDeleteI would like my information to be kept private online, but I know this is not always the case. You can google anyone and find information on them. If it wasn't added by them it was likely added by someone else. It is sad that our information is this readily available to others, but I expect this to always be a problem as technology increases. Unless you are Amish, maybe . . . .
ReplyDeleteI believe, as US citizens, we have a right to privacy to a certain extent. However, I believe our right to privacy changes as society changes. In the last decade, social networking alone has created a whole new outlet for people to share information about themselves. Because of this, privacy has changed but we are the ones the blame seeing as it is up to us how much or how little we choose to share.
ReplyDeleteI think that the internet has brought us into an age where the government has exceeded its bounds of the constitution. Unfortunately, we live in an era where you may never know exactly what the govt sees of ours and the government. It is hard to hold them accountable when you can't see them doing anything. For example, if they just snooped through your house you would know and fight it. But unfortunately the internet has allowed them to do this in secret.
ReplyDelete