Privacy Of Personal Information

We are living in world that is growing in technology. Technology is evolving so rapidly, especially in ways that allow us to store personal information. For example, we can look up a purchase with no receipt at a retail store with a swipe of a credit card. Another example, we could go to the doctor and the nurse can print out a copy of all our health records that are stored in the computer by just typing in our full name. Although this may be a way to make things easier for us, it is also a way for people to take our information without permission and do what they please with it. People can hack into the database of retail stores and steal account numbers and people can just say your name and get your health history if the nurse does not ask for a form of identification. Information privacy is a growing concern for Internet and data users. In a report Protecting Privacy in an Information Age: The Problem of Privacy in Public, researched by Helen Nissenbaum of Princeton University, she states:

As a third explanation for neglect of the problem of privacy in public, I have suggested that until powerful information technologies were applied to the collection and analysis of information about people, there was no general and systematic threat to privacy in public. Privacy, as such, was well-enough protected by a combination of conscious and intentional efforts (including the promulgation of law and moral norms) abetted by inefficiency. It is not surprising, therefore, that theories were not shaped in response to the issue of privacy in public; the issue did not yet exist. (17)

Helen makes a great point because it wasn’t until a few years ago that technology exploded and began to create all these different forms of databases that can do...

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...uits and concerns about private information lost or stolen. (Hasty, Nagel, Subjally)

My personal opinion is that this is a complete invasion of information privacy and that I would rather not have any third party knowing where I’m planning to travel or what items I’m planning to buy online. Also in the future when I have my career I would like to keep my personal life completely out of my work life. I wouldn’t want my boss knowing my personal passwords to my social media or even giving him the access to what I did before and what I am doing now, that’s what my professional resume is for. All of this might not seem like a big deal now but again you have to understand that this is just the start and if we continue to allow data mining or any type of invasion of personal information there will be no one to draw the line the line between personal and public information.