Privacy Essay

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3. How can privacy be protected? (500 words)
In terms of government intelligence, in the information age greatest threats to privacy have been the result of technology and business practices related to e-commerce, marketing and information databases, and not the result of government intrusions (Hoffman, Novak & Peralta, 1997). Nevertheless “all things considered, the increasing and overlapping information sharing by governments and businesses about formerly confidential or private activities generates concerns about potential violations of individual’s privacy rights” (Mace, 2008 cited in Gal, Kantor & Lesk, 2008, p.41).
It is essential to know about what privacy means for the intelligence community (IC). The IC is interested in breaching the privacy of the “bad guys”, however the issue is how to do that without breaching the privacy of others. Figure 3 lists the three main areas related to privacy protection: accuracy, access and accountability (Landwehr, 2006 cited in Wacks, 2010, p.46).
Figure 3 – The three A’s

Source: (Landwehr, 2006 cited in Wacks, 2010, p.46)
In addition, a human right and fairly generous right to privacy are acknowledged in most international instruments such as Article 12 of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) (Wacks, 2010). There are ‘The Madrid Privacy Declaration’ which “is a substantial document that reaffirms international instruments for privacy protection, identifies new challenges, and call for concrete actions” (The Public Voice, n.d.) (see Appendix 1); and OECD Principles (see Appendix 2).
Nevertheless, there is no perfect system. In the face of technolo...

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...acturers, along with information and advice about how best to safeguard personal information, are essential elements of strategy for privacy protection. As a result, the technological methods like ‘Privacy Bird’ and Platform for Privacy Preferences Project (P3P) are emerging, which allows you to configure your personal privacy preferences (Wacks, 2010, p.135).
Despite existing laws and privacy enhancing technological methods, the US is progressively taking full advantage of its dominant position not just as the home of companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter but also acknowledging jurisdiction on all websites registered in the US. Therefore, countries such Brazil, Iran, Russia, India and China “are now challenging United States hegemony of the Internet and even calling for the creation of a new governing body to oversee Internet policy” (Brooke, 2012, p.245).

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