Thursday, February 25, 2010

Privacy

Internet Privacy

How do you define privacy, online, or within your own home? Has technology taken away from your right to privacy? How do you feel when you are sitting at dinner with your family, having an intimate conversation and your phone rings from someone you know that is depending on you to answer, whether it is a distraught friend or a classmate with a question?

I think technology has led to a rapid decrease in our personal space, privacy, and has depleted the meaning of privacy within our homes. In terms of internet privacy- it has never existed because there is no way to define what privacy is and isn’t on the internet.

While doing research for my paper, almost all of my sources address the crisis that the American public has with defining what “privacy” is. Some say it is the individual’s value to the rights of dignity and autonomy. Or is privacy a right to freedom from governmental and private sector surveillance? Or is it the difference between personal and public life?

In terms of the internet, the consumer seems to be unknowledgeable of what their privacy means and how it is being protected, or in most cases, not protected on the internet. That is one of the major issues making it difficult for legislatures to even begin to determine what and how the issue of internet privacy can even be dealt with.

What is privacy to you in this technological society? Is it okay to turn off the cell phone and disconnect yourself from being instantaneously obtained, in order to protect your privacy in that moment? I believe it is become harder and harder to even have privacy anymore- to have truly alone time- unless you annex yourself from the technology.

-Jessica Vanacore

2 comments:

  1. It does feel annoying when someone is interrupting you with a phone call while you are either talking with a friend or doing your homework. Sometimes the phone rings, and whoever is calling hangs up immediately. So, it is not always a problem.

    People can now talk to you through opaque objects. These include phones, an answering machine, and a computer screen. Anyone who knows or needs you can talk to you through new, evolving, and alterative media.

    Technology may be very useful, because you may need help from someone else. You would definitely call someone if you have an emergency.

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  2. As I said in a previous post, privacy is over, in my opinion. What we need to work on is equal access. I like David Brin's argument in his book, The Transparent Society, although it probably is a bit unrealistic.

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