One horrible day at work, my computer suffered a bad sector on the HD and I found myself deprived of the window through which I often much of my world. Well, at least 8am-5pm, Monday through Friday. What did we do before the Internet? I barely remember anymore. If you are reading this, odds are that you either nodding in agreement, or are contemplating what an alien world that must have been. Do the words, “Get off the phone, I’m checking my Vax account” bring back a surge of frustration…and a little smile?
Ahhh, life is so much better now! Everything is so much easier. Anything we want to know is so easily attainable. For example, I can find out where you live. Wait, what just happened? Did I lose you? Did that smile fade a little? I can even get an image of your house from Google. Don’t worry, I can only find you if you own your home, have a traffic ticket, got a divorced, been to jail, had any child custody issues, were unable to pay your bills, sued anybody, and several other things. Maybe you are thinking, “Well, I don’t have any legal problems, and I don’t own my own home.” Don’t worry, I can pay a small fee to an online company that will search thousands of databases to find you for me, and it only takes about a minute. Maybe you have moved. Didn’t I say not to worry? That company will also tell me how to contact your relatives and neighbors.
Alright, I think you get the point. So this begs several questions. Do we have a right to privacy? BTW, I’m referring specifically to “Public Information” (i.e., demographics such as where you live, who your neighbors are, where you work, civil and criminal records, etc.). I am not referring to Mom searching your room or finding out to whom you’ve sent a cupcake on Facebook. What are the arguments for and against keeping this information private? What members of our community have a stake in knowing this information about us? Should some members of our community be allowed to keep this information private? How did we get to this point and why? I’m very interested in hearing as many points of view as possible. Please share your personal answers to the questions above. I’ll post Part Two: A deeper examination of this cultural issue and a brief history of pertinent public policy in a few days.
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I completely agree. It seems the more dependent we become on the internet, the more our Privacy seems to go out the window. Where does it end? And how can it all be legal? But it won't end. Because like I said, we are so dependent on the internet and its easy access to stores and information, that we will keep putting our information out there for everyone else to snatch up and likely use to their advantage. But what can we do?