Privacy? What's That?

In Simson Garfinkel's Privacy and the New technology: What They Do Know Can Hurt You, He explains some situations where "privacy will be one of our most important civil rights," coming into the twenty-first century. Garfinkel says this because he sees that privacy is not really the privacy we intend it to be in the computerized world. In the computerized world, Garfinkel argues that people have been, at least once in their lives, been in a "privacy invasion." He argues that it is important that people should have privacy in their computerized world because it protects one's personal freedom. He says that individuals actions are not enough. He suggested that people should try to get the government involved with fighting for privacy. It is obvious that Garfinkel is upset with the rights of privacy. All he wants is for the computerized world to have some sort of privacy that will protect an individual's personal freedom. He also suggests that if people revise the current direction of the government," it would be to create a permanent federal oversight agengy charged with protecting privacy." What Garfinkel is saying is that we should ask the government to create some kind of agnecy that will stop people or other invading privacy groups from invading our privacy space.

Privacy does not truly exist in this world. Everywhere you go, nothing is private. For example, I have a personal account set up with facebook. About two months ago, my facebook got hacked and someone was using my profile to promote pornagraphy on my profile. Everybody who is my friend on facebook thought that I was trying to promote pornagraphy. In the video, it shows how information brokers break into you private accounts online and sell your personal data. Thats how they tend to make money, by selling, packages, and collecting your personal data. They get all of there information from free and lost costs sources. Perhaps, a "information broker" broke into my account, sold all my information to marketing companies or to individual condensores, thus, creating a hacker who tried to promote pornagraphy websites. I would totally agree with Garfinkel because whats the use of "privacy" when we know that someone can hack into our personal profiles. For the people that are my friends on facebook, be aware of the "information broker," because according to the video, they can not only break into my privacy settings, but as well as my friend's privacy settings.

Invading one's privacy, whether online or in real life, is violating an individual's civil rights and should be demolished. This violates our personal freedom and should have the government get more involved with online privacy invasions. Garfinkel was right about privacy, saying that "privacy isn't jus about hiding things. It's about self-possessioin, autonomy, and integrity." These are the things that make up our personal freedom and should be protected. If someone asks you that some things are "private,' tell them that you do not know what privacy is or what is means because, unfortunately, it does not truly exist in today's computerized society.