Free «Information Privacy» Essay

Privacy is a critical and essential element of many areas including the interactive systems in e-commerce, health, care, office work, and personal communication. Decades ago, making a payment online was considered to be very risky and far not as available as it has become today. People cautiously used their real names in the social networks, and the anonymous actions in the Internet were prevailing. In recent decades, digital systems have undergone various changes as well as facilitated and improved different ways to exchange information and services. At the same time, such development has raised the risks and threat to be not only deceived, but depredated. The aim of this paper is to show that the growth of the possibilities in the digital world has led to the directly proportional growth of the risk to be abused in different ways.

The worries of people constantly grow with the emergence of new information about various types of internet fraud and appearance of a number of new deceiving practices. However, the government, media, and IT workers make efforts to control the computer systems as strictly as possible. In their writing, Iachello and Hong (2007) pay a specific attention to the quick growth of the application of developers’ work and concerns. However, it is essential to remember the problem of finding the best solution to cater for all the needs of clients, which is mostly connected with four influential forces. Among such, one should define technical mechanisms, market demands, law, and social norms (Iachello & Hong, 2007). Therefore, the vulnerability of information is closely interconnected with people instead of systematic issues. Among the challenges that make the concerns about the privacy, one has to pay attention to the uniqueness of human-computer interaction. Although privacy can be defined in a number of ways, one can see that it is closely connected with the perspectives of solitude, anonymity, and intimacy. At the same time, many scholars argue that such values contradict human freedom (Iachello & Hong, 2007). Hence, the question of what should be the prior thing to be secured must be regarded as the first issue that raises doubts on the proper limits and privacy rules. According to Iachello & Hong (2007), there are several aspects regarding privacy that need special attention. The interaction and the analysis of techniques and tools as well as the organizational support are the aspects that need peculiar attention. Furthermore, the dynamics of users is the important feature that should have a serious impact on the privacy design creation. Additionally, a well-organized work in the direction of “privacy toolbox” creation and improvement is also a salient issue for the researches in the sphere of the digital world and its rules. However, not only the ethical and cognitive aspects are important to understand the issue and form the right approach to the system aeration and estimation; the law is one of the most important ways to tackle privacy and confidentiality issues.

The Internet and computer dynamics teach people the important lessons about the Fourth Amendment. As it was previously used in the physical world, the digital search and seizure show that it is far not always appropriate in the virtual world. Therefore, the Amendment supports only some of the principles of the electronic information and search of evidences. The features that can unify it with the physical world reject the “ex ante” restrictions in warrants (Kerr, 2006). However, they are different considering the scope of search, rules, copies, updating, and environment. The “reasonable expectation of privacy test” was used to bring the Fourth Amendment in the technological world. Whereas its main aim is to regulate the information flow between individuals and state, the main issue is the access to the private information that becomes available for the government that regulates it. Although such access is mostly explained as one that is necessary in case with criminals and serious investigations, it raises a question on the privacy definition and leads to confusion between the notion of privacy and security. Nevertheless, privacy should deal with control and protection of the personal data regardless of its value for the government or anyone else. At the same time, security can obviously be raised at the cost of one’s privacy.

Privacy is recognized as a dominant concern in the digital world. On the one hand, it is easier to provide it in the world of technologies than in the one with the real settings. However, Palen & Dourish (2003) mark out that it is important to pay attention to the “social and institutional settings”. The technologies as well as the privacy rules need to fit into the cultural practice. Though the authors have presented the ways in which threat is an effective way to control the behavior of people, there is a bunch of examples showing that culture is an efficient mean to make choice about the privacy rules in different countries. Additionally, Palen & Dourish (2003) pay a special attention to the historical continuity of privacy. Not only the future, but also the past are important methods to regulate the privacy practices. Finally, one should regard the possibility to consider privacy management as it is aimed at creating a balance between people and their conflicting requirement. Finally, it is important to focus on the possibilities as the gift of the technologies and privacy.

To sum it up, it is cricial for any modern person to understand the importance of privacy as the feature that is closely interconnected with the real life of people. Mainly the social issues and the law are of great importance for understanding the distinction between the privacy and the rights of the government to use the personal information. These notions are closely interconnected and depend greatly on a number of human values and views. The treat as well as the possibilities that the digital world gives to people depend on human demands and perception of inseparability of the positive and negative aspects of all innovations they can get.