Privacy has become a core concern with increasing ease of collection and transmission of personal information stored in digital media. Although information technologies have enhanced information sharing thus facilitating various business and social processes, the resultant ease of gathering and transmitting information has presented various privacy challenges (Halbert & Inguli, 2012, pp. 84-85). This paper reviews the privacy challenges presented by the digital information era and the legislative and other measures for addressing such challenges.
Technologies allowing individuals to research citizen’s private data
Various technologies allow individuals to collect other individual’s private data. Three of these technologies are data mining software used to collect customer information, surveillance software used to monitor employees and customers’ usage of the internet and applications that enable assess to passwords to personal accounts. Data mining software allows collection of personal data in places such as points of sale where consumers use their credit cards and in websites that individuals visit to make online purchases or fill in customer surveys. Such data may be used to better service to consumers but when sold to third parties, it may be applied for spam marketing and other malicious purposes (Bélanger & Crossler, 2011; Allen, Walker, Coopman & Hart, 2007).
Employers use electronic surveillance software to monitor activities that employees perform during working hours (Allen et al., 2007). Such software could allow collection of private information for instance by evaluating the information that employees send through the company’s information systems. For consumers, surveillance software such as cookies installed in an individual’s computer help entities learn on the websites the consumers visit thus getting personal information on such consumers. Various applications also exist that could lead to breach of passwords for websites containing personal information (Wood, 1983). Such software include key loggers that record the key strokes that a computer user types thus could lead to the users of such key loggers having passwords that allow them to access personal accounts of the computer user.
Advantages and disadvantages of public access of private information
Access to private information has various implications for researchers and those whose information has been accessed. With regard to the researchers, the positive aspect is that knowledge of private information could assist in offering customized solutions to the individuals, ensure appropriate use of time at work by employees, and avoid aspects such as negligent hiring (Allen et al., 2007, Peebles, 2012; Bélanger & Crossler, 2011). On the negative side, by accessing private information illegally, researchers could be subject to litigation leading to eventual loss of business or imprisonment (Carr, 2007).
With regard to individuals whose information has been accessed, positive effects include increasing sensitization about privacy issues hence their participation in combating privacy breaches, and receiving information tailored to ones specific interests (Berman & Bruening, 2001). On the negative end, access to private information impinges on an individual’s privacy thus challenging aspects such as “personal autonomy, emotional release, self-evaluation, and … protected communication” (Halbert & Inguli, 2012, p. 90). Access to private information also provides tools for malicious individuals to send massive and irrelevant spam messages or pose other security risks to the individuals whose privacy they have breached (Carr, 2007; DeVries, 2003).
Measures to Protect Private Information
Citizens can take various measures to protect access to private information. Firstly, such citizens can be cautious when using their computers and conducting online activities. For instance, setting up strong passwords for personal accounts, changing passwords frequently and using security software that prevents installation of malicious software such as key loggers is vital (Wood, 1983).
Additionally, individuals could become proactive in demanding protection of their personal information by entities to which they provide such information (Berman & Bruening, 2001). Such concern should also extend to lobbying for better laws that provide incentives for entities to remain committed to protecting the information that customers provide to them (Berman & Bruening, 2001; DeVries, 2003). With such an approach, the threats to privacy presented by the digital information systems would be minimized while avoiding stifling the communications necessary to encourage positive interactions.
Federal law granting the federal government the legal right to make private information on U.S. citizens available to the public
One of the laws that offer the federal government the legal right to disclose private information to the public is the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) which went into effect in 1967. The FOIA provides for the federal agencies to make information available to the public based on various provisions. For instance, in paragraph 2 of the Act, federal agencies, according to rules published for disclosure, should make available records such as “administrative staff manuals and instructions to staff that affect a member of the public”, for public inspection and copying. Such a provision implies that the Act grants the agency a legal right to release information, at times private in nature, to the public.
The FOIA provides for various aspects that are important in avoiding Government cover-up of information that affects the public. Such a law is important in ensuring individuals obtain information relevant to their life that the government would otherwise have concealed even without such information posing serious threats such as threats to national security. Therefore, despite the privacy concerns that may arise with disclosure of information, FIOA provides a critical framework that promotes realization of society goals over individual interests.
Privacy Laws restricting access to digital Personal Information
Various legislations seek to protect individuals’ privacy by outlawing unauthorized access to private information stored in different formats. For instance, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act makes provisions to prevent interception of wired communications in-transit and that which is stored, even temporarily, by third parties (Ruane, 2011). Many other acts protect specific forms of data such as health data (e.g. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), and financial data (e.g. Gramm-Leach- Bliley Act) (Ruane, 2011). Other laws provide privacy protection to consumers for aspects such as consumer credit reports, telecommunications subscriber information, federal agency records and children’s online information (Stevens, 2011). Various advertising regulations also offer privacy protections for consumers (Stevens, 2011; Carr, 2007).
Despite existence of such privacy laws, technological advancements have challenged the extent to which the laws provide actual protection. For instance, Ruane (2011) notes that most data collected from consumers does not fall within the common laws delineated by federal statutes. Such is for instance evident from the variant form of data that can be collected from websites such as social media sites. Secondly, the globalization of data market means that some of the personal data stored could fall outside the jurisdiction of a single country (Devries, 2003). Accordingly, digital information technologies have made it increasingly difficult for privacy protection laws to have a significant effect. However, such laws have provided a deterrent to privacy breaches in countries with an informed populace.
References
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Berman, J & Bruening, P. (2001). Is privacy still possible in the twenty-first century? Social Research, 68(1), 306-318.
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Devries, W. T. (2003). Protecting privacy in the digital age. Berkeley Technology Law Journal, 18, 283-311.
Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. § 552 (1966).
Halbert, T., & Ingulli, E. (2012). Law & ethics in the business environment (7th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Peebles, K. A. (2012). Negligent hiring and the information age. How state legislatures can save employers from inevitable liability. William & Mary Law Review, 53(4), 1397 – 1433.
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