People always care about their privacy. They write love postcards, discuss various themes through phones and e-mail, plan their lives, criticize some things and some people, and truly believe that their ideas and their thoughts cannot be eavesdropped by someone.
Adams, Bocher, and Gordon say that in the United States, privacy protection is a somewhat that is based on different laws and policies at the federal and state levels. Privacy law is the law that forms the basis for privacy protection. It is difficult to interpret, and should be considered from different perspectives [1].
With the help of modern technologies (new communicational devices), people’s messages fly over the world with unbelievable speed. Of course, such message transformation should be lead by somebody or something. Can it be possible that each of these messages is checked by a certain security agency? If it is true, the question of person’s privacy should be raised and discussed as quickly as possible.
However, if the organizations like NSA (National Security Agency) and FCC (Federal Communications Commission) have such an access to any information spreading through the Internet and phones, why could they not prevent the hijackers of September 11?
So, do these organizations have the right to have the access to the information spreading through the Internet and other telecommunication devices? As a member of the Federal Communication Commission, I would like to discuss what ethical issues are needed to be considered in order to control the activities of NSA and FCC by the government.
To present a clear and comprehensible suggestion as for network regulations, it is necessary to take into account certain ethical theories and public opinion.
First, it is necessary to mention basics of ethical theories in order to check what actions of the government will be ethically correct towards people, and what actions should be evaluated once again.
Ethical theories are usually based on such ethical principles as respect for autonomy, justice, beneficence, and least harm. Any ethical theory underlines certain aspects of ethical dilemmas in order to present the most appropriate resolution. In the case of network regulations, it is better to concentrate on two ethical theories: the deontological theory and the rights theory.
The deontological theory underlines that each person should follow his/her obligations with respect to another person or even society. Upholding someone’s duties is one of the ethically correct principles. If a person or a group of people neglect their duties, it may cause to numerous conflicts and misunderstandings. The other theory, the theory of rights describes that all rights, which are set by the society, have the highest priority. These rights are also ethically correct, as they are endorsed by the society.
According to these two ethical theories, it is possible to analyze the actions of NSA on September 11. NSA had all the necessary information to stop the attacks, the only thing they needed to do is to inform CRI or FBI about the messages they found out [2]. According to the deontological theory, their duty was to protect people and make their lives safer. According to the rights theory, they had just no rights to hide that information, as it contradicted their duties (to protect society).
However, those attacks, the mistakes of government, and security organizations have been already analyzed millions of times. It was stated that it was crucially important to indicate new rules and regulations from government’s side in order to improved the work of NSA and make the life of each citizen safer. It is one of the brightest examples of NSA mistake; the mistake that took so many innocent lives. This fact proves once again that it is really important to control NSA’s work.
Can it be that NSA pays more attention to really private messages and do not care about the messages, which are really important. It is high time to raise the question about privacy on the Internet. Numerous investigations show that people are sure about their database privacy. Lots of people share personal information on different web-sites, but unfortunately, they do not know how and where such information may be used more [3].
Maybe, it is time for the government to clear up what kind of information can be traced and what information should remain to be private only. Almost every day, people hear about the idea of privacy in relation to credit ratings, abortions, sex, AIDS tests, etc. However, when a person buys apartments or votes, the information about this person is noted in a computer, so, it is far from privacy [4].
At the beginning of 1990s, with the appearance of new computers’ technologies, people’s rights concerning privacy faced numerous misunderstandings and questions. According to the US Constitution, the third Amendment says that the privacy of the person. So, from the ethical point of view, people have the right to stay in private for any period of time, and NSA actions contradict this rule, and they deprive people of the opportunity to be alone and share private information.
Secondly, it we should pay more attention to the essence of privacy in order to realize how other people may interfere your life. Privacy is considered to be one of the major issues for discussion that arises from the development of new technologies. Email privacy and privacy of phone calls call too many requests.
One more issue that calls numerous troubles is posting photos on the Internet without people’s agreement [5]. Just imagine a simple situation. A man wants to spend some time with his lover and does not want to inform his wife about this fact. Of course, the situation is rather rude, but still, such occasions happen from time to time.
By chance, he and his lover are photographed, and these pictures appear online. Such situations are usually inherent to famous people, movie stars, and singers. Of course, moral and ethical issues of a new millennium have been considerably changed and contradict to religious norms [6]. However, every person has the right of privacy, and none of the scientific breakthroughs can deprive a person of this right.
Taking into account all this information and illustrative examples, it is possible to admit that the position of government as for controlling the access to the information on the Internet by the National Security Agency should be considerably changed.
Ethical issues, such as the right of privacy and deontology indicate certain ethical dilemmas, such as the duty of protecting people and depriving them of the privacy. One of the possible implications I would like to present is the development of new programs, which may track dangerous for society messages (via phones and the Internet) and do not interfere the life of ordinary people.
Is it possible to create such a program, where only the computer system may distinguish suspicious information and present it to the members of the National Security Agency? Only after the computer’s system identifies the information as dangerous or suspicious, it should be evaluated by humans.
Of course, lots of nuances need to be taken into consideration. It is necessary to pay attention to the location of a sender and a recipient, their age, and race, maybe. It is not the question of racism or ethnicity. Just because of such details, it is possible to develop a really safe system and control all the messages without interfering in other people’s lives.
The question of privacy on the Internet and phones is urgent indeed. People cannot live with a thought that another person or a group of people track their life. Lots of scientists and writers have already discussed this issue, and it was not that easy to come to one and the same conclusion.
To provide people with privacy, it is, first of all, necessary to analyze the idea of network neutrality (when a network is performed under one concrete criteria). One of the brightest examples of neutral networks is the network of the National Security Agency.
Secondary, it is important to pay attention to public interest and such ethical theories as the theory of deontology (based on justice principles) and the theory of rights (based on the protection of people’s rights). And finally, the government should control the NSA’s access to all kind of private information spreading through the Internet and other communicational devices.
Works Cited
- H. R. Adams, R. F. Bocher, and C. A. Gordon, Privacy of the 21th Century: Issues for Public, School, and Academic Lessons. Libraries Unlimited, 2005, 1.
- N. Katyal and R. Caplan, The Surprisingly Stronger Case for the Legality of the NSA Surveillance Program: The FDR Precedent. 60, Stanford Law Review, 2008, 1023.
- J. P. Nehf, Shopping for Privacy on the Internet. 41, Journal of Consumer Affairs, 2007, 351.
- A. Bacard, Privacy in the Computer Age, 53, The Humanist, 1993, 40.
- Interview with Pippa Lawson, NYMITY 2006. Web.
- F. E. Meeks, Moral and Ethical Issues for the New Millennium. 126, USA Today, Society for the Advancement of Education, 1997, 62.