547-548).
The problem is stated clearly by Graham: "The legal community has paid little attention to the consequences for individual privacy of the development of computers" (Graham 1987, p. 1396). Graham does say that the common law has the capacity to protect privacy rights from invasion of privacy just as it expanded to combat threats in the past, but he also says that privacy law has lagged behind technology: "Privacy law has failed to respond, as it has in the past, to technological changes that influence the degree of privacy to which we are accustomed" (Graham 1987, p. 1396).
Technology has changed the nature of "privacy" according to some because technology has altered the meaning of "public." In an earlier age, people possessed greater anonymity than in the computer age, given that information is increasing with vast stores of data about everyone accessible by computer. The old concept of privacy is thus disappearing, though computer users are realizing this fact more and more and so seek ways to prevent any further erosion of privacy. While it remains true that massive amounts of information may be gathered in one place, analyzed, and disseminated, users still try to remain anonymous to as great a degree as possible ("Virtual Privacy" 1996, pp. 16-17).
The Center for Democracy and Technology concluded in 1997,
The deployment of key recovery systems designed to facilitate surreptitious government access to encrypted data and communications introduces substantial risks and costs. These risks and costs may not be appropriate for many applications of encryption, and they must be more fully addressed as governments consider policies that would encourage ubiquitous key recovery ("The Risks of Key Recovery, Key Escrow, and Trusted Third Party Encryption" 1998).
Most of the encryption systems used today, the organization points out, support rather than hinder the prevention and detection of crime. Encryption is used to protect burglar alarms, cash machines, postal meters, and a variety of vending and ticketing systems from manipulation and fraud, and encryption is also being deployed to facilitate electronic commerce by protecting credit card transactions on the Internet and by hindering the unauthorized duplication of digital audio and video. The use of encryption remains patchy, however:
Most automatic teller machine transactions are protected by encryption, but transactions made by bank staff (which can involve much larger amounts of money) are often not protected. Most Internet electronic mail is still sent "in the clear" and is vulnerable to interception. Most cellular telephone calls in the U.S. are still sent over the air without the benefit of strong encryption. The situation is similar in other areas. Members of the law enforcement and intelligence communities continue to express concern about widespread use of unescrowed cryptography. At the same time, these communities have expressed increasing alarm over the vulnerability of "critical infrastructure." But there is a significant risk that widespread insertion of government-access key recovery systems into the information infrastructure will exacerbate, not alleviate, the potential for crime and information terrorism ("The Risks of Key Recovery, Key Escrow, and Trusted Third Party Encryption" 1998).
This is because increasing the number of people with authorized access to the critical infrastructure and to business data will increase the likelihood of attack, whether this be by technical means, by exploitation of mistakes, or through corruption. In addition, key recovery requirements, to the extent that they make encryption cumbersome or expensive, can discourage or delay the deployment of cryptography in increasingly vulnerable computing and communications networks ("The Risks of Key Recovery, Key Escrow, and Trusted Third Party Encryption" 1998).
Encryption is also imperfect and may fail in some situations. Even among e-mail programs for instance, there are different and incompatible methods for accomplishing the task. This fact can mean that the sender will use an application that is not compatible with the system of the receiver, in which case the receiver will not be able to decode the message (Kenworthy & Lang 1998, p. 144).
Thus, it is evident that concerns over privacy are fueling much of the desire for encryption and opposition to any Key Escrow plan. Users do want the government to intervene to make encryption more uniform so one program will be able to understand another, but users do not want the government to possess the means to contravene the system to spy on Internet users. It is also believed that such spying would...
Thereafter, she published her own work and lectured on the Objectivist moral ethic to which she often referred to as "a philosophy for living on earth" based on rational self-interest and the balance between the needs of the individual and moral principles based on a commitment to objective situational perception and analysis (Merrill, 1998). In principle, Objectivism maintains that self-interest or rational egoism is a valid perspective but that the individual's
First, this viewpoint essentially discounts all abstract works from being called "art." This idea seems counterintuitive to many; numerous art critics, collectors, viewers, and even Rand (see below) consider abstract art to be art, based on the metaphysical emotions it re-creates. Rand's Objectivist philosophy does not completely accept emotions as having an existence independent of a subject, and therefore her view on non-representational art is at least consistent with
Ayn Rand, "Antitrust: The Rule Unreason" alleged purpose Antitrust laws protect competition; purpose-based socialistic fallacy a free, unregulated market inevitably lead establishment coercive monopolies. Remarks on Causation and Liability This reading discusses the relationship between conduct and result. This mainly refers to an injury afflicted to a person because of negligence by another person. The writer specifies that an individual should be compensated for any injury they suffer that is directly
Rand merely suggests that lacking any purpose in life is a moral failing of the individual. According to this view, a person who contributes nothing to others but lives very "purposefully" to satisfy an arbitrary personal interest in gardening, or cooking, or classic comic book collecting is living a life that is morally and spiritually superior to one who maintains no highly motivated purpose but happens to improve the
Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand The Rationalization and Pursuit of Self-interest of Humanity in "The Virtue of Selfishness" by Ayn Rand Ayn Rand's collection of essays in the book "The Virtue of Selfishness" provides insightful thoughts about the emergence of rationalization and individualism within the individual. The author discusses how the dawn of humankind had already seen the emergence of individualism and rationalization. It is only in the process of
Anthem, the author Ayn Rand once again examines the conflict between the individual and society. The story occurs in a fictional location and society where the individual possess no rights. It is the responsibility of the individual to serve the state and any form of independent thinking or action is strictly prohibited. Against this background, the hero of the story, Equality 7-2521, emerges as an intelligent young man who
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