Americans and the entire world are losing their sense of privacy with the growth of technology. As the internet grows more popular and popular, people are sharing tons of data including personally identifiable information. In this day of age, the execution of Saddam Hussein was captured on someone’s cell phone. Obviously, this is an embracement of privacy. However, it and other such footage is not necessarily bad. This allows us to see the bad parts of society and work to fix them. If that video had never been captured, we would never have seen the possible mistreatment which took place. When we realize that anything we say or do in a public place is in the public domain, we will improve our behavior. America is losing its sense of privacy but is gaining self-consciousness.
In contrast to the world of 1984, government is falling behind in technology and is consequently not controlling our privacy. Instead, big business and the regular people around us control our privacy. One of the biggest controls of privacy is called “social media.� It allows users to share a variety of information over the internet including photos, status messages, and what music you are listening to. For the last one, you don’t even have to do anything – as so as you play a song it automatically sends it out for the while ‘net to hear. However, business is just creating and monitoring these services. It is people like you and me who submit and subscribe to them. We are the ones who share those photos and go to see what George is listening to. Privacy is controlled by social media – a partnership between business and people.
Technology is making it extremely easy for us to share other people’s information in the public domain. Cell phones with a camera are extremely cheap now so almost anyone can get one. With their trusty cell phone in pocket, they set out into the big, wide world to capture all that is embarrassing, funny, or well anything. Once they return to their small, thin house they can upload these images on to the immense, limitless internet. Once on the internet anyone from the government to a 5-year-old can look at it. However, if you are adept with technology you can manage it well so you don’t give away anything more than you need to. Technology empowers us to make our own decisions about privacy.
The government should draft legislation to help us control our privacy. I believe that each one of us should have control over our own privacy. I don’t think other people should have the right to upload that vide of us half-drunk on to YouTube. Instead, we should be able to make the decision ourselves. As for business, I think it is doing fine by just making the technology. It is the charge of the government to regulate it and citizens to use it ethically. That is where the real change needs to happen – in individual citizen’s mentality. We need to use the technology ethically and not make decisions for other people about what should be private and what should be public. The government could help with this but it really just comes down to that we have to be able to trust that the people around us won’t take photos of us and upload them onto Flickr. The final control over my privacy is you.
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