Protection of Personal Privacy

Protection of Personal Privacy

         Invisibility equals privacy in the contemporary society that totally disapproves of personal information remaining to self. Certainly, the maintenance of privacy on the internet has become a virtual superpower. Ranging from the constant photo updates that are posted hours to the human obsession and craving towards having all information on a person, the internet has become an invisible background of the known versus the unknown. In a world where data is the most sought after by fraudulent organizations and people, privacy has never been more critical. At the same time, there is a rise in the number of social networks and the continuous need to share information that could otherwise be categorized as private. Privacy on the internet has always been important to me since the first time I started using social media platforms, especially Facebook(Ortutay 2018).  What then, can a person do to ensure that they maintain their personal privacy? In consideration of the things that compromise individual privacy, the harnessing of all resources to maintain confidentiality is totally the first step to getting life under control. Personal privacy can be maintained by the control of information shared, password protection of de voices, taking not of platform and application privacy settings, and the use of secure internet browsers.

The definition of privacy comes down to three aspects. That is, people should have the right to determine who can see information about people when others can view what they post on social media and what material they can see.  The ability to discover people that have access to me can be listed as one of the most powerful statements to the controlling of privacy. According to Van de Hoven (2019), “the debate about privacy has been fueled by claims regarding the right of individuals to determine the extent to which others have access to them (Westin 1967) and claims regarding the right of society to know about individuals.” While targeted marketing is beneficial for the advertising companies, the idea that a third party has access to my information is in no way comforting. In a world where data is the most sought after by fraudulent organizations and people, privacy has never been more critical. At the same time, there is a rise in the number of social networks and the continuous need to share information that could otherwise be categorized as private. However, it is almost impossible to prevent an invasion of privacy in an application-driven world.

In the digital age, the concept of privacy is highly underrated. Modern technologies have certainly become a way to move people’s privacy into the public domain. Government and commercial database structures keep countless dossiers. In turn, there is always a risk that there will be a leak of private information to malicious parties. Cultural norms dictate how people assess whether and when to share information with others, let alone on social media.  These conclusions are made in the ways prescribed by experience and background. Most people critic whether to share information based on how people present themselves, how they communicate, who initiated interaction, their character and also whether or not the platform members are corporations or individuals that am familiar with. Personal interactions on social networks come with a web of cultural understandings about the uses of information.

Protection from the misuse of personal information is achievable through checking of social privacy settings. In the use of social media platforms, there are social settings that allow for the covering up of certain information entered. According to the database designers of all the sites, there are levels of abstraction of information that is created during the data modeling process.  Once applied, the personal user interface differs from the information that is presented in the public domain. In my view, privacy expectations on social media have more than ones led to me using pseudonyms as a way of ensuring I remain anonymous to the internet community.  A lot of people have resorted to the same antic to prevent their identity from leaking into the wider spaces. The use of pseudonym has unfortunately led to cyberbullying and commit fraud, thus making people that use the same to become a mark of incredibility. For example, in the use of Facebook, there is the allowance for the prevention of contact details and even the option of limiting posts from other users. According to Otutay (2018), “Thanks largely to years of privacy scandals and pressure from users and regulators, Facebook also offers a complex set of controls that let users limit how their information is used — to a point.” Also, I believe that while it is my responsibility to ensure my privacy, the companies that control digital platforms share in the obligation. A massive scandal culminated after Facebook was found to have stored troves of data of every clock that was made in the application for years. Consequently, I have reservations about my privacy as related to the cultural norms in my culture and comparison to other cultures while also putting into account the impact of family and friends on confidentiality.

On the other hand, there is a possibility that an individual can evade all tracking of internet activities through the use of secure internet browsers.  As mentioned earlier, it is possible that corporations are involved in data mining; therefore, the use of another service to cover internet tracks is vital. Settings that store both first and third-party cookies create a vulnerability to privacy.  Boumans (2017) notes, “The goal of settings on cookies is to let users determine from which domains they want to accept cookies and from which ones they don’t. Many cookies are used to store identifiers of users” (p.15). A browser add-on ensures that the trail is not left behind. Additionally, the use of a tool to encrypt connections is also a good way to be sure that public connections, such As coffee shops’ Wi-Fi do not make the user vulnerable. Once again, the devil is in the details of the search engines that a person chooses to use. For instance, Google services provide for incognito settings that oblige the other websites not to track activities on the internet. Microsoft also provides the same clause in the form of the “Do not Track Setting.” However, there is a growing number of tracking mechanics, including HTTTP cookies, flash cookies, Silverlight isolated storage by Microsoft, and many others. With the evolution of these techniques comes a greater responsibility of throwing the trackers off the wind. An example is the use of password protection and several levels of encryption in the process of storing information.

What’s more, third party access to information can simply be prevented through password protecting of everything. The likelihood of having sophisticated secret hackers is as limited. Subsequently, the people around if individuals are the most likely suspect of a breach of privacy. That is, access to information is in modern society as easy as getting on someone’s phone. In order to protect individual privacy, there is a need to put in place passwords including on computers and all other devices that contain private data.  Furthermore, if the devices accidentally get lost, a secured password means that the information is not privy to being found by strangers. A lost gadget may have as serious consequences as identity theft. All passwords are important, but the rat of the creation of stronger passwords then makes the process of decryption by another p[arty even harder. Huth et al. (2012) insists, “: Using a weak password. Selecting a weak password is like closing your front door but not locking it. A password is weak if it can be guessed easily” (p. 1). Most people make the mistake of choosing a password that is easy to remember at the risk of using a catchphrase or something identifiable by their personality. A strong password to secure personal data is improved by the introduction of fingerprint technology. Fingerprints are uniquely recognizable by a machine, which makes it harder for other people to access personal information.

Learning the art of sharing only the necessary details makes it easier to protect personal information.  Rethinking of privacy is directly related to little information available to decipher the unknown. Oversharing applies to both the physical and internet spaces.  In the privacy of relationships, there are levels of revelation depending on the nature of the engagement. “The degree of intimacy in a relationship is determined in part by how much personal information is revealed. One reveals things to a friend that one would not disclose to a casual acquaintance” (Farland). It is easy to get pulled into all the internet drama and ending up showing off like the new celebrity culture dictates. But then that is going to translate to everyone knowing what is happening in the life of an individual, even that which is to be kept in private. As quotes Antonio (2017), “The quest of knowledge used, to begin with, grand theories, now it begins with massive amounts of data. Welcome to the Petabyte age.” While a digital footprint is created by the massive data production that is shared by the individuals each day in the digital age, unfortunately, there is a caveat to this move; a person cannot avoid social interactions without the creation of acquaintances.  Friends and relatives have proved to be a blind spot on the preservation of confidentiality. It is easy to think that a person is in control of their privacy if they are to follow the simple idea of only sharing what is to be shared, but people cannot be in full control of their private data. Family and friends can create a position to which privacy is exposed. For example, the use of public domains that deal with genealogy and genes. The online services of this nature collect information for the creation of a genetic profile. In turn, the public databases are at risk of misusing, as is evidenced with the recent hacking of an online genealogy website. In the latest incident, one of my friends tagged me in a photo on Facebook. A tag means the viewers of the post from the other person’s page will then go on to check out your profile. Even if those that follow up are of no ill intent, these tags can be a source of discomfort for me. While the show of brotherly love is acceptable, the ubiquitous practice of tagging videos, photos, and posts on social media is an invasion of privacy.

What, at this point, can an individual do to guarantee that they keep up their protection? In light of the things that bargain singular security, saddling of all assets to keep up secrecy is absolutely the initial step to getting life leveled out. Individual security can be kept up by the control of data shared, secret key insurance of de voices, taking not of stage and application protection settings, and utilization of secure web programs. In the utilization of internet-based life stages, there are social settings that take into account the concealing of certain data entered. Learning the craft of sharing just the important subtleties makes it simpler to secure individual data. Reexamining of security is legitimately identified with little data accessible to disentangle the obscure. Notably, there are areas that are not under personal reach when it comes to a conflict between informational privacy versus constitutional privacy. Constitutional privacy largely lies in the hands of an individual for they can decide what is intimate and personal. On the other hand, informational privacy comes with little control over the data that is already in other people’s hands such as Facebook. The bottom line for the protection of personal privacy is the limitation of sharing of information due to the probability of there being a leak from the internal rather than the external. Consequently, information can be protected to only a certain degree especially when it comes to governmental intervention.

 

References

Antonio, Vera D. (2017). “Thank You for Oversharing! Re-thinking Privacy and Publicity in the Era of Big Data.” Academia.edu – Share Research, www.academia.edu/34358872/Thank_You_for_Oversharing_Re-thinking_Privacy_and_Publicity_in_the_Era_of_Big_Data.

Boumans, Willem (2017). “Web Tracking and Current Countermeasures.” Radboud University.

Farland, Michael J. “Why We Care about Privacy.” Home – Santa Clara University, www.scu.edu/ethics/focus-areas/internet-ethics/resources/why-we-care-about-privacy/.

Huth, Alexa, et al. (2012). “Password Security, Protection, and Management.” United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team.

Ortutay, Barbara (2018). “What Facebook’s Privacy Policy Allows May Surprise You.” Chicagotribune.com, www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-facebook-privacy-

Van den Hoven, Jeroen, Blaauw, Martijn, Pieters, Wolter and Warnier, Martijn(2019). “Privacy and Information Technology”, The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/win2019/entries/it-privacy/>.