David Padilla
Ms. Garza
English 10
16 December 2012
The Imperial Bedroom Privacy is a concept that every single one of us claims to enjoy, but also something that has slowly been disintegrating, while we’ve become more and more oblivious to it. Although it is not explicitly stated in the Bill of Rights, mostly everyone agrees that at the very least, our Founding Fathers hinted at the right to privacy. Recent occurrences around the world have brought the concept of privacy into the spotlight and have left dark and, in many cases, disturbing amounts of evidence as to where the notion of privacy may be headed if we remain ignorant to it and fail to act. A potential exists for a complete loss of privacy in our lives, a sad reality that needs to be addressed immediately. In an essay written by Jonathan Franzen titled, “The Imperial Bedroom”, Franzen illustrates the fact that our society is always under the microscope of the public eye, although it may not seem like it. That is, what we deem to be “confidential personal information,” may not be so confidential after all. Essentially, Franzen points out that privacy does not exist the way it did before. Advancements in modern technology have made it increasingly easier to receive and send information, allowing us to make transactions and share personal information much more readily than before (Franzen). For instance, a click of a button is all it takes to make a thousand dollar purchase. If a single click is all it takes to buy something, how unrealistic is it to believe that someone else might be able to obtain the information we used to make that purchase? In fact, someone might even use that information to make a fraudulent purchase of their own. The way technology is today, it seems ten clicks is all it would take to do just that. There has often been debate over when it is acceptable to infringe on the privacy rights of an individual. Some especially claim that when it is a matter of security, it is not only acceptable to do so, but necessary, since it could mean the difference between life and death. Take the very famous “WikiLeaks” example. Classified American documents were recently exposed on the WikiLeaks website, causing the United States to act to remove them. The attorney representing this website argued that all it did was engage in investigative journalism, and that it cannot and should not be selective in posting material, as it would put into question the integrity and credibility of WikiLeaks. The United States stood on the position that actions like those could potentially cause a “diplomatic disaster” for the country (Stephens). Whether one agrees with either argument or not, it is clear that technological progress, the internet in this example, has further complicated the concept of privacy, and has raised many questions as to what is and isn’t acceptable in terms of keeping certain information in the personal or private sectors. It seems logical that when it comes to endangering someone’s life, it might be prudent to consider privacy as more of a privilege than an absolute right, as we ethically place the idea of preserving human life over the concept of privacy. There are, however, scenarios in which retaining privacy should be of utter importance. This is especially true in the medical field. According to Andre Picard, author of “Patient Privacy is a Matter of Ethics,” it would be immoral to discuss the medical conditions and records of patients to people who have not been authorized to receive that information. Picard claims that it is especially important to guard this type of information because of the “…nefarious attempts to violate privacy by insurers, employers, private investigators, police and current/ex-lovers.” Individuals have a right to privacy when it comes to their personal lives, especially in areas that do not threaten the well-being of others or raise other types of security issues. Also, medical records have
Related Documents: Essay on No Such Thing as Privacy
Thesis statement: Internet privacy is vulnerable and things must change before it gets out of hand. Too much information is gained too easily and used against us without even knowing. Opposition Facebook made new set of privacy options. “A spokesman says the move was intended to ‘empower people’ by giving them more ‘granular’ control over their personal information” (Lyons 3) Newsweek article “Google’s Orwell Moment: On the Web, privacy has its price” We have privacy options or choice of whether…
and all other things that our life is based on these days. Some people might say that they have nothing to hide; however, this argument of “nothing to hide” is actually suggesting that the thing that people try to hide is bad. Privacy matters because it belongs to the man who owns it. It’s a part of him/her, which is not allowed to be exposed. Privacy matters because it varies between people; it should not be used against the owner as well as it cannot be used for other purpose. Privacy created clothes…
Privacy Policies In my opinion handling the privacy policy of a company the likes of Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, and Facebook is extremely difficult. With that being said the privacy policy of a conglomerate organization in which they are all combined is mere impossible. However, if was hired by this company to help with their privacy policy I would recommend some important practices that many of these companies either don’t or do not do well enough. One practice is better communication with users…
it has become more prominent that many people has gotten into photography, and has become more of a hobby and a bit less of an art. If you really think about it everyone is a photographer, between instagram . Anger, organization Internet privacy and how it affects you. Many people get on all kinds of websites and hardly ever realizes (with out any one bringing it to their attention) that most if not all of their information can be see and use by so many other sites and every one if they don’t…
battery of questions to nearly 3,000 internet experts and scholars, centering on where things would stand by the year 2025 as technology and society kept evolving. The wealth of material from this non-scientific, opt-in canvassing of experts resulted in seven reports about what trends might emerge in online life between now and 2025. The reports looked at the general future of technology, the internet of things, specific threats to the internet, the impact of artificial intelligence and robotics on…
government steal our privacy on the internet? As I sat down to begin writing my proposal, a final tweet for evening was sent to my public Twitter account. After sending my tweet a couple questions come to mind; “who is going to read this?” more importantly “who is able read this?” I read the proposal prompt and the idea clicked that I could use those questions to my advantage. I want to further explore the issue we face with outsiders and the government stealing our privacy on the internet. In…
Jamikka Waremercer Balancing Medical Privacy and Public Safety The article is very informative it talks about the issues of a tragic elementary shooting in Connecticut. It also tells us about how Obama tries to reduce gun violence. It then goes on to talk about how they wanted to gain the efforts to clarify health information and privacy protection. It also let us know that they are barriers to information sharing between health care…
Sasha Jones March 27, 2015 Dr. Rankin Annotated Bibliography 1. Cranor, L. internet privacy: A public concern. Net Worker 2, 3 (June/July 1998), 13-18. Online privacy policies are legal documents that state the ways that parties gather, uses, and disclose user’s data online. The privacy policies are very difficult to comprehend. The hidden secrecy behind privacy policies is that you need to be on a collegiate reading level to understand it first and foremost. This paper evaluates three main…
TheFacebook than finally called Facebook. Facemash opened on October 28, 2003,and closed a few days later; it was shut down by Harvard executives. The Harvard executives pressed charges on Mark Zuckerberg for violating copyrights, and violating individual privacy which included stealing the students photos for the use to populating the website. Mark Zuckerberg also was expelled from Harvard University for his faults, but later all charges were dropped by the court. At first TheFacebook was just for Harvard…
controversy over the handling and usage of the extensive information it collects from its users. FB user’s biggest concerns are the privacy and user controls over the information granted to Facebook. Facebook faces the dilemma of how to gain revenues from user information without violating their privacy. The management and organization failed to consider its users privacy concern when it introduced new software that users felt to be invasive. Facebook provides a free service that users pay for, in effect…