Privacy
Privacy is the ability for an individual person or group of people to seclude them or information about from themselves from the rest of the world. The boundaries and the information that would be considered private differs from cultures and individuals however privacy does share the same basic principles. Privacy is sometimes related to anonymity, which is the desire to not be identified or remain unnoticed. When something is considered private to somebody, it usually means that the information that they have is considered personal to them.
Key issues
One of the key issues of privacy is identity theft. Identity theft is when someone steals somebody else’s identity with the intention of stealing money or other benefits in that person’s name. The victim of identity theft can suffer the consequences or the thefts actions. People and organisations can end up with huge losses if their identity was stolen. An example of how your identity could be stolen is, if you go to buy an iPod off of a dodgy looking website, that website will offer to download an application which at the time would make paying for it seem easier. This is actually a fraud and the program downloaded is actually a computer virus that can be used to track keystrokes that you make. This will mean that anything that you type will be sent directly to the person or ‘company responsible and credit card details can be stolen. Now with your card details stolen the theif can buy or use the credit card information for whatever they like and you will suffer the concequences for their actions.
Another issue of privacy is social networking sites. The reason that this is an issue with privacy is because of the increasing amount of social networking sites, it is easy to become miss lead and then put up information about you. Allot of social networking website such as Facebook, twitter and Google plus, hold very personal and sometimes sensitive information about their users on the website. The reason this is a key issue is because this makes it easy for people to find out about you, for example somebody could go onto Facebook and find out where you live, where you work to, who your family are, what you did yesterday etc., the list goes on the reason this is dangerous is because people can see this information against you so you could potentially be harassed by complete strangers.
Privacy, The Two Main Arguments
There are both rights and wrongs of any argument and privacy is one of those topics that is consistently debated about.
While some people may think that privacy is a bad thing others will think it is a good thing. Privacy can be considered a good thing to have because not everybody wants their information to be shared around. Privacy can be a very good thing as there is sometimes information that you do not want anyone to know about. For example, sometimes if something major has happened in a celebrity’s life, they can pay for an injunction, which is when their privacy will then become, becomes protected by the law. Once a celebrity has an injunction, it will stop the press form publish anything about any incidents that have are remotely related to them.
However some people such as Tabloid newspapers are one example of the kind of people that think that privacy can be a bad thing
. These people think that privacy is a bad thing to have. One reason that n these people think that privacy is bad is because they like to find out what’s been going on in life, mainly other peoples, and for some of these people, it is their job to let the public know what’s going on. The reason is because they believe in freedom of information and the right to know.
A right and a Wrong for each Argument
Every argument has both their rights and wrongs to them. While they are both very valid arguments, they still have their flaws. For example for the people who think that it is good to keep information private, they are right because everyone has the right to keep any information that they consider private, private. This also protects both themselves and their identity. However the wrongs of this particular argument is that, while it is true that everybody does have the right to keep information private, some celebrities take advantage of this and choose to keep everything private. If they choose to do this they could `use an injunction to try to justify their actions, especially if their actions are morally wrong.
But the argument that privacy is bad for freedom of information also has its rights and wrongs. This argument is right for one thing as freedom of information, especially on the internet, is something that everybody has or should have the right to it. However this argument also has its wrongs. Having freedom of information does not guarantee that the information that you are receiving is not personal and just because somebody has information doesn’t mean they have to share it with everyone. Sure, everybody has the right to information, but it is the holders choice whether or not they want to share it.
Privacy concerns and freedom of information
The short answer to this is that neither the immediate privacy concerns of individuals nor freedom of information should actually be weighed against each other. This is because both privacy concerns and freedom of information are weighed delicately between each other. on the one hand, everyone is entitled to their privacy and on the other hand everyone is entitled to freedom of information.
ICO
The Information Commissioners office or ICO is a government ran agency in the form of a website that essentially allows you to receive information about data protection your privacy for public and organisations. If an organisation collects personal data then you are required by law to to register with the agency. Personal data that is collected such as email addresses, names, home addresses, phone numbers ect is all protected by the ruled that are presented on the website.
