Acquiring some new opportunities rarely does not go hand-in-hand with the risk of losing something. The reality is such that, having considerably augmented in the field of technology, the people of today ought to give something in return for the new things they have obtained. In the information age, when many things hitherto inaccessible have become just a click away, it is equally true that people gain something and lose something. It especially concerns privacy. Therefore, in the digital age, loss of a certain amount of privacy is inevitable.
Arguably, the main factor that has contributed to the certain loss of privacy people experience in the digital era is the change of social perceptions of privacy which have fluctuated with the boom of social media nowadays. This issue has been widely addressed in scholarly articles, books, and, ironically enough, mass media. For example, a The Huffington Post contributor Jayson DeMers is vocal in his claim that understanding the changes that the society’s perceptions of privacy have undergone is the first step in dealing with the challenges it poses (DeMers, 2014). The contributor also discusses the measures that have been taken by Internet giants such as Facebook and DuckDuckGo in order to assess their users’ level of satisfaction with their services and examine their privacy concerns (DeMers, 2014). What is more, the European Union, as reported, issued a ruling that was expected to broaden people’s chances to remain anonymous in the web, as well as to protect their privacy (DeMers, 2014). This means that the issue of privacy loss has gone beyond a single-user experience and stretched to become a matter of socio-political concern.
However, it is not always government that attempts to protect its people from the harmful effects technology and social media in particular might have on their privacy. To prove that it is a two-side deal, it is essential to mention one of the most scandalous legal battles that is directly related to the subject matter: Apple vs. FBI. A federal court has ordered Apple to supply FBI with the required technical means to access the data on the iPhone owned by Syed Farook, a dead terrorist (Singer, 2016). This is not the only legal battle known to have taken place between FBI and Apple (Singer, 2016). Yet, it is evident that the loss of privacy in the digital age does not only come from the overuse of social media, as commonly believed, but also stems from an easy access to the tools that allow to bring one’s anonymity down. Additionally, Apple CEO’s decision not to hand access to the encrypted data on the former user’s cell phone to the FBI stirs another controversy: are there any direct protocols that allow or prohibit decrypting user’s data under certain circumstances? If yes, who is in charge of establish those? If no, who is in charge of deciding of whether or not full anonymity is better than slightly damaged privacy? The answers to these questions seem to be buried under the altered perceptions of privacy the society has today.
Therefore, the question of users’ security in the digital era has been of increased weightiness over the past decade. Governmental institutions of various levels, as well as separate digital media providers have been expressing concerns regarding the users’ security and privacy in the Internet. The scale of the concern over users’ privacy proves that the loss of a certain amount of privacy is not only hypothetically inevitable in the digital age, but is practically a part of life of anyone who has ever used the Internet to any degree.
References:
DeMers, J. (2014). How Rare Is Internet Privacy in the Digital Age?. The Huffington Post. Retrieved 2 March 2016, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jayson- demers/how- rare-is-internet-priv_b_5676746.html
Singer, R. (2016). Legal battle over cell phone privacy in digital age - Buffalo - Buffalo Business First. Buffalo Business First. Retrieved 2 March 2016, from http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/blog/buffalo-law-journal/2016/03/legal- battle-over-cell-phone-privacy-in-digital.html
