2 Privacy is an extremely complicated subject that encompasses many different angles. It is also a subject that has shifted and changed dramatically over the years and continues to do so with technology, age and the world around us. It is hard to grapple with the concept of individual privacy, privacy regulated by government and the search for a reasonable balance. Within my research and my personal views on privacy, I have found it hard to comprehend what the right answer is regarding privacy for the greater good. It is apparent that the concept of privacy needs to be reinvigorated in our current society and given more emphasis. The general definition of privacy is the state or condition of being free of being observed or disturbed by other people. In my previous paper my personal definition was a moment to be alone, free of interruption or distraction. Both definitions appear to be very similar however, I believe that they are vague and only begin to scratch the surface of the true meaning of privacy. Communication has significantly changed in todays society. People communicate primarily through social media, text messages and other smart phone applications. Many Americans chose to disclose excessive amounts of personal information on social media, their likes and dislikes, contact information, location information, photos, etc. This excessive amount of sharing has changed the way younger generations view privacy. Privacy appears to becoming obsolete in the realm of social media. Stalking, hacking, messaging snooping and the constant fascination of what your peers are doing. This has also created a false sense of intimacy and security. I believe that younger generations are unaware of the mark and importance their social media
S presence has on their life and their privacy. Once pictures and statuses are posted to social media outlets like Facebook they can be copied, altered and remain on the Internet permanently. People need to be aware of the consequences that can follow from social media saturation. It can play a role in schools, employment, getting in trouble and other important aspects of life. The law protects you again self-incrimination, but it doesnt cover voluntary gloating, confessions or stupidity. Youre protected against a forced confession, but not against you questionable choice to videos and social media posts, this highlights the very important difference between what goes on in your mind and what you should share. Industrialization and technology have played major roles in the transformation of the publics perception of privacy. In the late 1800s hand held snap cameras made available to the public were viewed as an invasion of personal privacy. People and journalist were able to take pictures in public places for the first time. I could only imagine how this new device and the idea around the device of anyone being able to capture a permanent image of another individual were both exciting and frightening. In the 1960s and 1970s social anxiety grew around the idea of new technology and government having the capability to collect and store information. This information was stored in large data banks or databases on individual people. Citizens and legislators began to realize that there were dangers posed with this information, which could also be abused. The Privacy Act of 1974 was enacted out of compromise between two competing bills. The bill protects records about individuals that can be retrieved by personal
4 identifiers like name, social security numbers and other identifying numbers or symbols. Individuals are entitled to access their records and are able to make corrections if necessary. The act also protects disclosure of these records without written consent from the individual. This act was enacted to keep individuals records safe from the invasion of privacy through the misuse of records by Federal agencies. I have found that Americans throughout history have extreme mixed emotions and perspectives on the idea of privacy. Some have the urge to fight for their right to privacy, where others are willing to give up those rights as an obligation to the people and America. We are more inclined to give up these rights in times of extreme distress where people fear for our national security. In many of these cases Americans sacrifice a great deal of individual privacy with no real gain. Major events like the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon completely changed and reshaped Americas view on privacy and safety. The people of America wanted and demanded immediate action and were terrified for good reason. President George W. Bush signed the Patriot Act into law on October 26, 2001. Patriot is an acronym for Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act. This bill extended the governments powers in investigating terrorism. Some of the most controversial provisions associated with this bill are: information sharing, roving wiretaps, access to records, foreign intelligence wiretaps and searches, sneak and peak warrants and material support. These provisions were put
S into place to protect Americans but also appear to breach privacy and indirectly violate provisions in The Privacy Act. Critics highlight that unrestricted sharing could lead to massive databases on citizens who are not criminals. A violation of privacy can be applied to anyone who comes into contact with a suspect and lead to potential guilt by association. Critics also state that it could be hard to detect and reveal abuses made by the government. Air travel and air safety were another aspect of American life that greatly changed after the 9/11 attacks. The Aviation and Transportation Security Act created the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). The TSA put into effect stricter guidelines on passenger and luggage screenings. These steps towards safer air transportation significantly changed the way people travel and began incorporating methods that directly invade personal privacy. Only ticketed passengers are allowed through security. Extensive screenings for weapons and other destructive items were put in place and passengers are required to remove their shoes and banned from bringing liquid through security. The most controversial change was the body scanners that were installed with imaging software that ultimately stripped searched passengers. Passengers were given the option to opt out of this invasive screening; however, in many cases this led to uncomfortable pat downs and other search procedures. People felt that this was an invasion of privacy and directly violated the Fourth Amendment. With public pressure and stories of abuse by employees, Congress voted to have privacy-protecting software installed. This ultimately led to the use of less invasive imaging software.
6 Attacks like bombings, shootings or other acts of extreme violence change the publics opinion of what privacy is and should be. I also believe that events like these bring into effect the double standard that Amitai Etzioni talks about in his book The Limits of Privacy. He states that we seek to enshrine our own privacy while denying that of others, on the grounds that we are innocent but they are suspect. I know that for myself personally I have had brief moments of lapse where I have shared these ideas. Another event that personally changed my perspective on privacy and the idea of surveillance was the Boston Marathon Bombings that occurred on April 15, 2013. It was the first time I realized how easily it is to be identified and misidentified in the world we live in today. Due to a crowd-sourced investigation innocent people were singled out and labeled as suspects and vicious criminals. What started as an atypical request by the FBI to gather evidence from the public quickly morphed into a much uglier digital witch hunt, one where the crowds fears, prejudices, and suspicions were doled out based on shreds of circumstantial evidence. Their information rapidly spread over the Internet tarnishing their names and identities. Some of these people feared for their lives viewing social media profiles and groups filled with threatening messages. The media also played a significant role in the misidentification process hungry for any new information. Although media outlets have been quick to lump all of the crowd- sourced efforts together, there were two very different processes occurring which proved to have drastically different outcomes: crowd- sourced intelligence gathering a massive success and crowd-sourced
7 crime solving an abysmal failure. The FBI only ever asked for the first, but both happened simultaneously. They each offer important glimpses into major issues surrounding the future of law enforcement, justice, and surveillance. Technology is ever advancing and people are more inclined to get involved via social media and other online sources. People have the resources readily available and I believe this puts our privacy and security at greater risk. So what can we do to protect our privacy on a local and global scale? Creating awareness within younger generations is a start. We need to be made aware of the positive and negatives of a society with no privacy. Our personal information about our families, income, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and social security numbers are worth money to legitimate and illegitimate businesses. Companies want to know as much as possible about individuals in order to sell more products, services and advertisements. We need to be more aware of the information we are releasing on the Internet and on our social media. The more information you share online the easier it is for someone to obtain it. We need to be more aware and thoughtful when sharing our social security number, even the last four digits. Other ways to protect us digitally are creating secure passwords, two-factor authentication, setting up alerts, making sure our online presence is relatively private and evaluating our security settings. It is also important to encrypt your computer and emails, use an IP masker and clear your browser history and cookies on a regular basis. Ignoring these is like sending your personal information out onto the trapeze without a safety net. It might do fine or it could get ugly.
8 Educating the American public about the law and technology of government surveillance is also very important. Americans need to be made aware of what the government is capable of doing and the possible threat of surveillance and how to properly defend ourselves against it. There are four concepts to consider when making security decisions: assets, threats, risks and adversaries. Assets are something you value and want to protect. Digital assets can be emails, instant messages, data files and web sites as well as computers holding the information. A threat is something bad that can happen to an asset. A risk is the possibility of a threat happening to a specific asset and the outcome or amount of damage that can happen. People need to evaluate the value of the asset they are trying to protect and the risks associated with protecting those assets. An adversary is any person or thing that poses a threat against an asset. Examples of adversaries that pose a threat to digital privacy and security are: U.S. government agents, foreign governments, civil litigants, companies with access to your data, employees, hackers, stalkers, private investigators or other parties who wish to eavesdrop. Knowledge is power. In order to have the ability to comprehend how to secure ourselves from the government we need to be made aware of the governments capabilities and limitations. The Fourth Amendment allows us the right to be secure in house, paper and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures. This cannot be violated and no warrants can be issued without probable cause supported by the Oath or affirmation particularly describing the place to be searched and the
9 person or things being seized. There is however a grey area in regards to privacy and protection under the Fourth Amendment in exposing information to another person or to the public at large and it is easy to expose more than intended. An example of this is engaging in transactions with your bank, phone company, insurance company and even your grocery store loyalty card. By engaging in transactions with your bank or communicating phone numbers to your phone company for the purpose of connecting a call youve assumed the risk that they will share that information with the government. It is easy for the government to collect third party records without any notification. It is also important to research and understand the proper protocol in regards to search warrants, sneak and peak searches and warrantless searches. A few privacy tips in regards to these searches are being aware of keystroke loggers that may have been installed onto your computer or keyboard and using anti-spyware software which can also protect you against identity thieves and commercial data harvesters. Another aspect to consider while discussing collecting and viewing personal information is the NSAs mass collection of phone records. These phone records can yield vast amounts of identifying information about callers including details about family, political, profession, religious and sexual associations along with medical conditions, financial and legal connections.
Data stored on a person or organizations computer like documents, computer files, communication records and other information that tends to collect, should be organized and destroyed over a period of time.
1u It is also beneficial to have a written policy or statement with the length of time documents are kept. This will ensure that you have not destroyed or hid evidence. People who are concerned with document privacy should also apply this method to paper documents as well, making sure to shred or destroy them. People looking to protect their privacy should also keep online browsing in mind. Government forensic experts can retrieve viewed web pages off search engines like Google exposing years of search results. I personally have never used the website Tor, but a significant amount of articles have highlighted the site in regards to browsing security and privacy. Tor is an example of free software and an open network that allows users to improve privacy and security on the Internet, it helps to protect against Internet surveillance. Individuals use Tor to keep websites from tracking them, connects to new sites, instant messaging services, etc. and blocks individuals local Internet providers. Encryption is another important aspect in digital privacy and security. Encryption is the translation of data into a secret code. Encryption is an effective way to achieve data security. In order to read an encrypted file the user must have access to a secret key or password that allows the user to decrypt or unencrypt the data. Using an encryption can help to protect against potential threats. It can also help protect confidentiality and audits files to ensure they have not been tampered with. Encryption can also be used in a negative manner. Etzioni points out, that encryption is and has been used by criminals and terrorists to conceal their activities. There are specific threats regarding the use of encryption to law enforcement,
11 public safety and national security. Five threats discussed in the book were: Encryption making it impossible to obtain necessary evidence. Encryption causing frustration in communication interceptions that reveal valuable information about the intentions, plans and membership of criminal organizations and generate leads for criminal investigations. Encryption hindering the gathering of intelligence and the last argument being that encryption can also lead to greater violations of privacy than would otherwise have occurred. With issues regarding privacy and protecting our privacy many aspects have to be considered. From the most basic form of respecting ones individual privacy to finding a balance between the common good and government regulation. However, this process can be challenging. Many of these aspects can be looked at from multiple viewpoints and perspectives causing contradiction and confusion. Throughout my research process I have found myself strongly agreeing with one viewpoint but understanding and agreeing with the opposition as well. It is apparent that as time continues to advance and history continues to repeat itself privacy will continue to be an evolving topic. Some believe that privacy will become extinct and obsolete. I disagree. I believe that people, especially younger generations living in a world of new technology and communication, will be made hyper aware of the dangers of living in a society with little to no privacy.
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