Despite the desire of most people to keep their personal life private, modern society faces numerous issues related to the violation of privacy rules. The privacy of most people is threatened by the usage of the Internet as there is a lack of policies protecting Web users. The private lives of employees are threatened by monitoring their Web activity conducted by most employees. The privacy of students is threatened by drug testing violating the right for keeping medical history private. The analysis of the factors mentioned above and exploration of the way they influence one’s life is crucial to understanding the scope of activities violating one of the primary human rights – the right to keep personal information in secret.
The Internet as a Threat to Privacy
The quick development of the global Web network has caused the intrusion of the Internet into all spheres of people’s everyday life. Every hour millions of people use the internet to chat with friends, check their credit balance, and purchase products online. The global Web network allows accessing any information easily, and private information does not appear to be well-protected on the Internet.
There are several ways of obtaining private information from the users of the Internet. Social networks are among the biggest sources of private information. People share their personal information, photos, and chat with friends, and pieces of this information can be easily accessed by anyone who knows how to hack the account (Garfinkel 5). Because social networks do not offer serious privacy protection policies for their users, it becomes clear that the privacy rights of numerous users can be easily violated.
Online banking systems present another way of tracking users. Every banking operation, including the information about what and where you buy, is recorded and can be easily tracked by the owners of such systems. Besides, most online search engines do not offer encryption, and, therefore, the information about everything the user searches for on the Web can be easily obtained. The ability to store loads of information for an unlimited time provided by Web databases presents another threat to privacy, as no one knows how certain forms of information can be used in the future.
The Impact of Internet Privacy on One’s Life
The impact of imperiled internet privacy on the life of people is huge. Various ways of obtaining information from the users of the Internet have their implications on privacy. When people create accounts on Facebook, they are asked to give their names, dates, and places of birth. Because the Social Security Numbers (SSN) are assigned based on this information, it is logical to predict that personal information on Facebook can be gathered by criminals for abuse of one’s SSN for illegal aims (Shaw 3).
Besides, every message sent to a friend and photo posted on the social network can present a source of information that can be used against the person owning them. Access to online banking operations and purchases can also present a serious threat to one’s privacy, as it offers information about the whereabouts of every user. Besides, online search engines violate personal privacy by collecting and storing loads of information about what information the person obtains on the Internet.
Internet privacy is not properly protected, and there are numerous methods of abusing personal information obtained from online sources. Appropriate measures to ensure the safety of online personal information should be made to protect Web users.
Employee Monitoring as a Threat to Privacy
Employee monitoring is one of the factors putting a threat to the privacy of users using the Internet. Modern web surveillance technologies give employers the possibility to track all Web activities of their employees while they are at the workplace.
Such practice helps organizations to prevent violations of their rules and avoid the leakage of important information. Besides, it helps to take appropriate actions in case of finding proof of possible sexual harassment or other serious threats to the safety of employees (Petersen 2). Though employee monitoring has certain advantages in terms of preventing violations of the company’s rules, it also can be considered an intrusion to employee’s private life, as the employers can check not only to work emails but any communication or Web search data from the computers of the employees.
The Impact of Employee Monitoring on One’s Life
Employee monitoring can negatively affect the lives of people. As the policies on employee monitoring are not well-developed, and rare companies stick to the rules of informing the employee about their monitoring activities, many people face the threat of sharing their private information with the employers without knowing it. Such a situation is unacceptable, as every employer must inform the employee about monitoring activities.
If the employer gets information about private messages sent by the person during working hours and the websites he/she visits during the break time, the employee’s right to privacy is seriously violated. Besides, such a situation can affect important job decisions, as employers attain subjective views of their clerks and can make decisions related to promotion or firing based on the opinions formed under the influence of gathered personal information.
Proper “general industry-standard guidelines for employee monitoring” should be established to prevent violation of privacy rules and usage of personal information leading to discrimination of individuals (Gain 3).
Drug Testing as a Threat to Privacy
Drug testing has become a popular method of monitoring the youth for drug addictions across the country. Obligatory tests for school and university students force the young people to participate in medical checking aimed at revealing whether any of them uses drug substances (The National Institute on Drug Abuse 2). Such activities are considered an effective method of preventing drug abuse among young people but present a serious threat to the privacy of students. They are forced to share personal information about medications they take to prevent the misleading results of drug testing. Therefore, medical workers conducting the testing seriously violate the right of every citizen to keep his/her medical history private.
The Impact of Drug Testing on One’s Life
Drug testing can negatively influence the life of the student due to the tense relations between students and educators it creates. Obligatory drug testing affects the attitudes of students to the educational process negatively, as they do not like to be forced to go under the checking of certain aspects of their personal life. Such a situation causes a worsening of interaction between the students and the faculty and can lead to a lack of enthusiasm to participate in extracurricular activities (Kern et al. 2).
The need to identify the prescription of drugs to avoid false positives causes the leakage of private information about the student’s health status, which he/she is likely to be willing to keep hidden from school or university community. Violation of the right for keeping the medical history private leads to possible negative consequences related to student’s communication with peers.
The analysis of the impact of unprotected information about web users, employee monitoring, and drug testing reveals that there is an urgent need for regulating these activities to prevent their negative influence on one’s life. All members of society, including employees and students, should be protected from violation of their privacy rights.
Works Cited
Gain, Bruce. “Employee Monitoring Can Violate Privacy.” Privacy. Ed. Roman Espejo. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2011. Gale Document Number: GALE|EJ3010434259. Print.
Garfinkel, Simson. “Internet Privacy Can Be Protected.” Privacy. Ed. Roman Espejo. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2011. Gale Document Number: GALE|EJ3010434244. Print.
Kern, Jennifer, Fatema Gunja, Alexandra Cox, Marsha Rosenbaum, Judith Appel, and Anjuli Verma. “Drug Testing Violates Students’ Privacy.” Privacy. Ed. Roman Espejo. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2011. Gale Document Number: GALE|EJ3010434253. Print.
Petersen, Chris. “Employee Monitoring Is Necessary.” Privacy. Ed. Roman Espejo. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2011. Gale Document Number: GALE|EJ3010434258. Print.
Shaw, Jonathan. “Internet Privacy Is Imperiled.” Privacy. Ed. Roman Espejo.Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2011. Gale Document Number: GALE|EJ3010434245. Print.
The National Institute on Drug Abuse. “Drug Testing Can Protect Students.” Privacy. Ed. Roman Espejo. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2011. Gale Document Number: GALE|EJ3010434252. Print.