Technologies that Allow an Individual to Research a Citizen’s Private Data
One of the most commonly used technologies to research a citizen’s private data is via the online system used to record credit scores and an individual’s outstanding debt. While such systems were once limited to banks and various credit card companies in the past, these days they have been increasingly utilized by employers, insurance agencies and even service providers in order to assess the eligibility of a particular individual for employment, insurance or even the installation of utilities (Media Awareness Network, 2010). In a similar vein to the system used for credit scores and outstanding debt are the online hospital records that enable hospitals from various counties and states to immediately learn of a patient’s medical condition and past treatments for an accurate and expedient diagnosis. The only problem with such a system is that aside from hospitals, private institutions such as insurance companies also have access to such a system in order to evaluate whether a person is a viable candidate for a life/health insurance policy. The last pervasive system that allows an individual to research a citizen’s private data are online social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus as well as through online search engines such as Google. Through these networks, a person’s likes, dislikes, current status and daily activities are can be monitored and used against them as seen in various cases involving identity theft and the firing of employees for various acts of misconduct that were shown on the social networking site as well as can be sold to various corporations for profit (as seen in the case of Google).
Advantages of Public Access to Private Information
Based on the various snippets of information indicated above it can be seen that the most obvious advantage of public access to this information is that it enables various companies to evaluate potential clients as to their financial/health-related viability for credit, insurance, and utilities. This reduces the likelihood of people with bad credit histories getting an extra line of credit or a person that has a history of drunk driving and accidents being approved for life insurance. Also, from the perspective of a potential employer, having access to such information enables them to evaluate whether an individual is suited for a particular position based on their history of debt, health and various other personally identifiable information that can be attained from such records (Martin, 2011). For those being investigated though such access can often result in them being “blacklisted” so to speak in being able to access forms of health insurance, vitally needed loans, and even jobs (Media Awareness Network, 2010). For example, in one case a woman with cancer found out that one of the main reasons she was having difficulty finding a job was due to the fact that the companies she went to investigated her medical history and found that she had cancer. Since an employee with cancer radically increases the insurance premiums that a company must pay this ended up with the woman being unable to find a job. The same can be said for potential employees with a history of bad debt since such individuals are often thought of as being unreliable.
Measures to Protect Private Information
The best way to protect information from getting out is to ensure that it isn’t posted in the first place. For example, a person can either opt-out from using a credit card, make sure that their doctors don’t disclose their medical records, and most importantly of all don’t post any revealing data on Facebook, Twitter or Google plus (McCandlish, 2002).
A federal law that grants the federal government the legal right to make private information known to the general public
The Freedom of Information Act puts into effect the lawful release of full/partial information that has been controlled by the United States government after a period of time and mandatory disclosure procedures detail that such information can be released to the general public (FOIA, 2012). While this particular law enables a certain degree of transparency in the government operations (which is a good thing) at times the information released may contain information that could potentially result in adverse consequences for particular citizens (as seen in the case of the release of previous census data results). As such, while I agree with this law in principle it should contain provisions that prevent particular types of private data from being released in order to ensure that no citizen’s private information can be utilized for self-serving purposes by malicious individuals or corporations.
Electronic Privacy Laws
While there are laws such as the Electronic Communications Privacy Act which protects private information over any electronic device what must be understood is that such laws and others like it don’t stipulate that accessing such information by businesses is considered illegal (AOL, 2003). For example, the access of businesses and banks to online databases regarding medical records and debt histories is considered perfectly legal and a normal part of doing business. Furthermore, corporations such as Google collect private information all the time involving a person’s browsing habits and as such shows how ineffective present-day electronic privacy laws are (Associated Press., 2012).
Reference List
AOL. (2003). Electronic communications privacy act. Web.
Associated Press. (2012). New google privacy policy allows even more access to personal information read more: Web.
FOIA. (2012). What is foia?. Web.
Martin, D. (2011). How safe will your medical record be online? david davis raises spectre of wikileaks over plan to put nhs data on web read more: Web.
McCandlish, S. (2002). Eff’s top 12 ways to protect your online privacy. Web.
Media Awareness Network. (2010). Why is information privacy an issue?. Web.