Privacy
Online privacy by definition relates to your ability to manage the information revealed about you online. While a simple concept, it’s a very complex issue; we are far from the world where you could assume your right to privacy.
Your information can be exposed in a variety of ways; deliberately and accidentally, by friends, family, your employer, clubs, churches or organizations, by the charities you donate to, by online services you use, and by the government through public records.
There are widely divergent views on the need for privacy. For today’s youth, privacy is often abandoned as they fail to see its intrinsic value, and if/when they do come to that realization, the information is already public. People with only a moderate concern for privacy may feel that very little information needs protection and are happy trading their information for the convenience and functionality that is returned to them. Others find even the collection of non-personally-identifiable profiling to be an invasion of their privacy, and use cumbersome workarounds rather than enable the collection of their information.
Regardless of where your personal privacy threshold lies, there are things you want to keep private that others are interested in learning – it may be an incident in your past, or something as common as your Social Security Number. Does your right to privacy trump someone else’s right to disclose?
We’re at a crossroad in trying to find the balance between one person’s right to privacy and another’s right to expose their information. Protecting privacy is a right worth fighting for, but where to draw the line may prove to be very difficult.