Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
lost millions of dollars gambling in Las Vegas. Does the public interest outweigh the
politician's desire for privacy in this case?
In summary, privacy is a social arrangement that allows individuals to have some
level of control over who is able to gain access to their physical selves and their personal
information.
A little reflection reveals that privacy can have both harmful and beneficial conse-
quences.
HARMS OF PRIVACY
Giving people privacy can result in harm to society. Some people take advantage of
privacy to plan and carry out illegal or immoral activities. Most wrongdoing takes place
under the cover of privacy [4].
Some commentators suggest that increasing privacy has caused unhappiness by
putting too great a burden on the nuclear family to care for all of its members. In the
past people received moral support not just from their immediate family but also from
other relatives and neighbors. Today, by contrast, families are expected to solve their own
problems, which puts a great strain on some individuals [5].
On a related note, family violence leads to much pain and suffering in our society.
Often, outsiders do not even acknowledge that a family is dysfunctional until one of
its members is seriously injured. One reason dysfunctional families can maintain the
pretense of normality as long as they do is because our culture respects the privacy of
each family [6].
Humans are social beings. Most of us seek some engagement with others. The
poor, the mentally ill, and others living on the fringes of society may have no problem
maintaining a “zone of inaccessibility,” because nobody is paying any attention to them.
For outcasts, an abundance of privacy may be a curse, not a blessing.
BENEFITS OF PRIVACY
Socialization and individuation are both necessary steps for a person to reach maturity.
Privacy is necessary for a person to blossom as an individual [7].
Privacy is the way in which a social group recognizes and communicates to the
individual that he is responsible for his development as a unique person, a separate
moral agent [8]. Privacy is a recognition of each person's true freedom [9].
Privacy is valuable because it lets us be ourselves. Consider the following example.
Imagine you are in a park playing with your child. How would your behavior be different
if you knew someone was carefully watching you, perhaps even videotaping you, so
that he or she could tell others about your parenting skills? You might well become
self-conscious about your behavior. Few people would be able to carry on without any
change to their emotional state or physical actions [10].
On a similar note, privacy lets us remove our public persona [11]. Imagine a busi-
nessman who is having a hard time with one of his company's important clients. At
