It was not long after the social websites like facebook and Instagram were introduced that people are starting posting their personal information and pictures quite freely for their friends and acquaintances to see. To be fair, the motive of these platforms was to find a way to socialize with friends through the use of the internet and for the longest time; these sites also took care of that particular wish of ours. We also have to consider here that after these websites had come out, in the beginning, the better part of us had more faith that the parties behind the curtain would protect our privacy. But then, many things started to change, and information started to leak, and there were many who paid the price.
It was not long after privacy was compromised that people started putting up more and more walls around their personal lives, and care was exercised in what information took the audience and what did not. There was also an equal and opposite force in this effort and through that force, the internet took in our personal details and social security numbers to link the information to our financial profiles and also employment information. Following this, our concern to privacy expanded well outside of the bound that our fears extended to and using the same network that links the billions of people across the globe to each other, financial thefts and breach of confidential corporate information were also added to the list.
Thesis Statement
Since the technology has progressed, we had been provided with ways to encrypt the information that we decide to feed to the internet, and we have again entered a bubble where every person believes that this information is safe just because the power of encryption has been given to the mankind. Unfortunately, the reality is not the same, and the truth is that ever since the governments have started to intervene and make attempts to take control of the information of citizens of different countries, a word such as privacy holds no meaning whatsoever.
These governments therefore including our own, are primarily responsible for the intrusion of privacy, a violation of right, which could later prove to do a lot of damage to every aspect of our personal lives. This intrusion is unwarranted, and the victims remain unsuspecting, and many of us could agree that the ends of keeping us securing cannot ultimately be justified through means that necessitate the incursion of our privacy.
Problem definition: how the intruders intrude
The US and British agencies are presently working towards disintegrating a number of encryption tools which provide peace of mind to users for the transmission of very confidential data over the internet. The information that is sought to be compromised through this step includes our e-mails, banking records as well as medical history. The problem here is that these moves on the part of the government trump the guarantees that many of the internet companies have been giving us that say that our personal information would be indecipherable to any third party intruders, the criminals and also to the governments. (Borger, Ball, and Greenwald, 2013)
In their attempts to take this step, these intelligence agencies including the NSA have installed trapdoors and backdoors which they could use to make the encryption tool moot just so that they could get to the sensitive information of the general public. Large sums of taxpayers’ money are being spent to further their efforts, and the problem is that our own money is being very effectively utilized to exploit our weaknesses in this regard. These agencies claim that the effort is important for them in dealing with counter-terrorism and in the gathering of foreign intelligence. (Borger, Ball, and Greenwald, 2013)
Maybe a few of us could even wrap their heads around the effort even if they cannot accept it anytime soon, but the problem that is going to get to us most is the fact that our security has been exposed without even our knowledge of the fact. The vulnerability that is created by these agencies not only gives them the right to get into information that we may not be providing to them willingly rather it also leaves us unguarded against the attacks from other intruders and hackers, and again, the worry of privacy still remains despite our idea of data encryption. The fact to ponder over is also that we are exposed to scrutiny not just by our own government but also by the government agencies of other countries including the NSA.
The privacy concerns that the general public worries about
People who make use of the internet for communication purposes are vaguely if not accurately aware of the threats to privacy that they might find themselves exposed to, whether they share their information willingly on facebook, or if the same information is pried out of their various profiles on the web without them knowing. The first very major concern that has been found specifically amongst the college students is that intruders may be able to find out where the person is at any particular time, a piece of information which could very widely be used to harm the other person (Young and Quan-Haase, 2009, p.270). Thinking about it for a few minutes, we could come up with about a dozen possibilities about how that information could be misused.
The second very common concern amongst the internet users was that their information could be used, sold or usurped without their knowledge or consent. Melinda is a 25 years old humanities student who worries about the same privacy loophole and worries about putting personally identifiable picture of herself online. She holds the opinion, that it would be extremely unethical for a spectator on the web to take her’s or anyone else’s personal information for that matter, and use it elsewhere. (Young and Quan-Haase, 2009, p.270) As a very simple example of this particular violation of personal privacy, we could understand how upsetting it might be for us to find out the own picture on the advertisement of a dating site. It could shock us and immensely disturb us at the same time.
Another significant concern amongst the users of the internet might be that their information be seen by people that they have not intended that information for. (Young and Quan-Haase, 2009, p.270) We could think of a distant relative for instance. Whether or not we add that relative to our facebook profile to see our photos and information is a decision that is at our own discretion, but we would certainly feel betrayed if information about our personal life and activities in any way becomes available to him/her without us giving permission for that.
How the governments are exposing us to all of our privacy concerns
For all of us who do not want any single individual to be aware of our whereabouts, the government agencies prying into our personal lives and getting access to our whereabouts could become a cumbersome realization to us. For whatever purpose that information is employed is a different story altogether, but someone knowing that about us without our permission is the most basic concern and a possibility that we want to avoid. The same problem also applies to the strangers who work at these security agencies seeing information that we never intend for them to see. Again, we are unaware of that scenario, and that purely makes it unethical and therefore wrong. Also, the information that we provide on the internet to us could be used by the same security agencies to whatever means they might decide, and we all would be none the wiser.
All of these concerns are essential to highlight here because government personnel or not, any person who might be accessing our information without our knowledge would still be defying the many responsibilities that the morality asks them to uphold. Just because an agency affiliates with the government does not give it a free pass on ethics and morality. This also means that whatever control we put in place to save ourselves from unauthorized access, they would not work anyways because all the information that we want to hide will still be accessed by government personnel in the name of security.
Linking privacy to the need for security
There are a few theorists who argue upon the concept of privacy. According to certain experts and theorists, privacy focuses too much on a single individual, and it overlooks the need for common good. Also, some concepts also criticize privacy for its ability to separate public from private life, a characteristic which could create problems like violence in families. Also, these experts say that privacy could also be used as a cover to hide behind in tasks that may be illegal or illegitimate, and this is a right that could be exploited by some as means of misrepresentation and concealing of some critical information. These criticisms also point out that privacy is a liberal form of democracy which could also stand in the way of participatory democracy. When defining the characteristics of privacy, some also say that it is a ‘Western-centric’ concept. Also, there are also a few people who say that the concepts of privacy further advance the inequalities that already exist in the society and that it gives a free pass to the wealthy and provides an excuse to escape accountability on the same wealth. (Aller, Fuchs, Kreilinger and Sevignani, 2014, p.51)
This is us addressing the flaws against the prevalence of privacy in the present day and age of online progress. The problem with our arguments here is that they are addressing the wrong side of our concerns. In the present age where social networking creates a free world online, the lack of privacy is what we should be arguing against, because as per the arguments that we witnessed just now, the threats that may arise from overstressing of privacy have been covered by experts time and again. These arguments have used privacy as a flaw and defended how it can cover up illicit activities. Our government agencies have implemented upon the same flaw, and they have been repeatedly stripping us of our right to privacy to save us from activities of terrorism and espionage.
The price that we pay for lack of privacy
Leaving our information open to vulnerability could also strike us with a lot of force and it could cost us losses that we may not necessarily be able to stomach. It has been because of the same trend of no privacy that our media has been reporting on various incidents like people getting fired from jobs, the revelation of other people’s secrets, divorces and the various incidents of cyberbullying. (Such, 2015) These are all prices that we have had to pay for willingly putting up information about ourselves on the social networking sites. We have realized our mistake and are trying to make amends, but most of our efforts have been in vain because we have been left exposed from the loopholes that have been put in place by the various government agencies for the others to exploit.
The incidents that the media reported may seem like child’s play compared to the problems that we may stand to face if we go on like this without putting up walls in our personal lives. It is important for the public and the private life to remain separate because the clash between the two might save many from violence behind closed doors, but it would cost us our relationships and in some occasions also our lives. A few years ago, our bank accounts were not available on the web. A few days from now, we may have much more at stake, and this is precisely why protecting our privacy should be a priority.
Conclusion
So the answer is no, the excuse for our security to protect us from terrorism and foreign threats does not justify the right to take away our privacy from us. This is because while the government could look for alternative to seek out and target the people who intend crime for the country, we cannot find alternatives to privacy without cutting ourselves off from the world wide web, and this alternative is much easier said than done in a world where our employment, finances, and businesses are all linked to the internet.
Even if there is dire need to keep us under surveillance, the governments should at least make us aware of all the breaches of privacy that may progress in our lives so that we could prepare ourselves accordingly. Giving us protection does not have to come to us at the price of our privacy.
References
Allmer, T, Fuchs, C, Kreilinger, V & Sevignani, S (2014), 'Social Networking Sites in the Surveillance Society: Critical Perspectives and Empirical Findings'. in Media, Surveillance, and Identity: Social Perspectives.
Borger, J., Ball, J., and Greenwald, G. (2013). Revealed: how US and UK spy agencies defeat internet privacy and security. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/05/nsa-gchq-encryption-codes-security [Accessed 28 Apr. 2016].
Such, J. (2015). The internet hasn't killed privacy – but it has changed it forever. [online] The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/the-internet-hasnt-killed-privacy-but-it-has-changed-it-forever-47220 [Accessed 28 Apr. 2016].
Young, A. and Quan-Haase, A. (2009). Information Revelation and Internet Privacy Concerns on Social Network Sites: A Case Study of Facebook. [online] Pennsylvania, pp.265-273. Available at: http://www.sozio-informatik.com/fileadmin/IISI/upload/2009/p265.pdf [Accessed 28 Apr. 2016].
