Verified Document

Privacy And The Internet Essay

Related Topics:

Privacy Matters: Introduction to Sociology.As Glenn Greenwald points out, the Internet has been turned into a tool of mass surveillance, notably with the NSA always lurking and spying on the Digital Era’s best means of communication. To some extent this type of spying and violation of privacy has become accepted as the norm because sociopolitical discourse in the modern era presupposes that there are two types of people in the world, as Greenwald puts it—those who are good (who do not plot against the state) and those who are bad (terrorists who do plot against the state). Those who are good have nothing to hide and therefore should not mind if the state snoops around and peeks into one’s personal messages and private life to make sure you are still one of the good guys. The problem with this is that it is a violation of trust and privacy and individual freedom. Still, people say that privacy only matters to people who are up to no good.

Greenwald states that Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google) said in an interview that if you’re doing something that you don’t want other people to know about, maybe you shouldn’t be doing...

But this is a wrong way of thinking. Many people do things that are not wrong but that might be considered taboo by society and thus if someone is spying or looking for a way to control that person, they can use information that they collect from violating the person’s privacy and use this as leverage to control the person.
Those who say privacy does not matter also do not mean it, if one is to judge by their actions: they put locks on their homes, they put blinds on their windows. Schmidt himself was upset when a magazine published private information about him that was obtained wholly by using Google products—which just goes to show the hypocrisy in Schmidt’s position. Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook made a statement similar to Schmidt’s when he announced that privacy was no longer a social norm—yet when he purchased a home in Hawaii, he built an enormous wall all the way around his property to keep prying eyes from looking in (Greenwald, 2014). What this shows is that those who say privacy don’t matter are just trying to prevent everyone from getting upset that companies like Google…

Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Internet Security, Risks Internet Security Presents Field
Words: 4724 Length: 15 Document Type: Essay

Internet Security, risks internet security presents field information technology implementing solutions address challenges. The paper 15 pages length ( including title reference page). 1. Title Page: Include, paper title, title, instructor's, date. Internet security In today's advanced technological world, online users are faced with a myriad of problems and risks. Any online user is vulnerable to Trojans, viruses, worms, spyware, and malware. The user is exposed to sniffers, spoofing software, and phishing.

Internet Abuse in Universities Why
Words: 1663 Length: 5 Document Type: Case Study

At the bottom line, the issue at hand is with the sanctity and safety of the students and the responsibility of the university to preserve and develop that. Moreover, many of these students are dallying into multi-dimensional virtual worlds that are beginning to closely resemble the physical world and that are having their own ethical issues arise (Wankel & Malleck, 2010). Universities need to educate themselves as to what those

Internet Censorship and Freedom of Expression
Words: 2943 Length: 10 Document Type: Essay

Internet Censorship The internet came to prominence as a tool and pursuit of the masses starting in the early 1990's. The capabilities, depth and breadth of what the internet has to offer have increased exponentially over the ensuing two decades. Such expansion has greatly eased the spread of information (Palfrey, 2010). The ease in which people communicate and disseminate information has created a cause for concern among many different parties that

Internet Service Provider ISP Web Content Law
Words: 1109 Length: 4 Document Type: Essay

Internet Service Provider (ISP) Web Content Law and Ethics The objective of this work is to answer whether Internet service providers have a responsibility to regulate the content that is available on the World Wide Web? This work will additionally answer as to whether the presence and ease of availability of pornography to the general public a tribute to free speech and a reflection of social maturity or an example of

Internet Privacy Issues the Digital
Words: 901 Length: 3 Document Type: Essay

They suggest that the laws necessary to protect informational privacy from unauthorized collection and use simply must catch up to the realities presented by modern digital technology exactly the way the laws now prohibiting unwarranted wiretapping of telephones once lagged behind the obvious implications of failing to incorporate the needs posed by modern technology into appropriate legislation (Levin, 2012). Competing Interests and Positions On balance, there are legitimate justifications for imposing

Internet Privacy the Internet Has
Words: 1357 Length: 4 Document Type: Term Paper

In this sense, internet privacy represents a challenge indeed. Internet privacy is a relatively new term and the definitions are therefore rather scarce or general. For instance, it can be defined as "the ability of individuals to determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent information about them is communicated to others." (Givens, 1999) in this sense, privacy is a matter of personal choice and is therefore subject to

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now