The Erosion Of Privacy

1208 Words3 Pages

In a world of Facebook and LinkedIn and YouTube and OKCupid and Google and IPhones and Ipads and Kindles and all the other hundreds of sites and devices designed to garner personal information, data-mine your information, to better advertise, sell, inform, and connect you with the people or the places that you want to experience. The wonderful world of the Internet helps connect millions of people with millions of other people in milliseconds all day, every day. All the swapping and sharing of information create a world of transparency, deception, fraud, and identity confusion. Avatars, aliases, and profiles are the ways most people advertise their goods and services and themselves. With this consideration an erosion of privacy has changed our culture in ways that some predicted years ago and some that are new to our era. This paper will explore some primary regarding how technology causes the changes in privacy and what are the effects brought on by these changes. As Evgeny Morozov would contend the problem of privacy with regards to technology is not a new dilemma. Commenting on Paul Baran’s essay The Future Computer Utility, Morozov came to the conclusion “our contemporary privacy problem is not contemporary.” (Morozov 2013) Though we do have newer considerations because of social networking, piracy, identity theft, and transparency, we are not suffering from an unforeseen nor unfamiliar idea. Upon further analysis of the technology issues there are many ways technology is changing the fabric of society. From children not having the physical dexterity to play with wooden blocks (Ratcliffe 2014) to private information getting hacked. There are a number of concerns regarding privacy and technology. With recent NSA breeches of ... ... middle of paper ... ...day. With this capability to download, post, stream, and share information at rapid speeds, children who takes snap shots and upload them to Instagram or Twitter may not understand the ramifications of a simple innocent act of posting some cool pictures for some friends to see. While much research into the specific causes and effects of different applications, sites, and devices is still needed there is sufficient evidence to support the research and weigh the consequences of the effect of technology on privacy. The issue of privacy walks a fine line between having freedoms and losing freedoms. “Siitis’s most crucial insight is that privacy can both support and undermine democracy.” (Morozov 2013) The focus for further development and research would be a probe into the personal desires of people to maintain their privacy and the consequences for those who did not.

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