Privacy in the Online World

Privacy is something we don’t really think about. Privacy is the last thing that comes up in our minds. The Internet is easily accessed by many people and can be hacked to find out important private information about anyone. People all over the world access the Internet, and when private information is posted online one person is going to be able to view that information no matter the privacy setting a person may use. The first article that I will use is “Who Is This Man, and Why Is He Screaming? ” by Rachel Kadish. This article is about the author writing an article about her cousin Noam Galai.

Galai took a photo of him self and posted it on Flickr. Months later he realized that his image was being used all around the world. The second article, “Visible Man: Ethics in a World Without Secrets” by Peter Singer, is about nobody having privacy in their lives any more. Everyone knows who you are and everything about you because of technology. Individuals must be responsible and protect their own privacy and also protect he rights of other individuals, with the panopticon privacy can be managed by being able to see who is observing us and what happens in the online world; therefore we act morally without breaking rules and laws.

Individuals who use the Internet have to realize that they must be responsible and protect their own privacy. What goes up on the Internet will be around the world in just seconds. Galai just posted a photo of his face on the Internet not knowing about the consequences that picture would have. Singer asks himself, “New technology has made greater openness possible, but has this openness made us better off? ” (Singer 463). Singer makes a good point about technology, because “new technology” has made the world improve by making it simple, but it has made it less private and dangerous because people do not understand their limits.

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Kadish says “The image had rippled outward in all directions, passing straight through national barriers” (Kadish 260). How could Galai know that the picture he posted months ago would be all over the world? The Internet is a very powerful tool, which makes you lose control of your own privacy. Some people have the tendency of misusing the Internet and risking their privacy. Technology is so powerful that any thing that you upload to the Internet will be in the power of other people. Like Singer said about the new technology it has made us open up to the world, so now everybody can see us and know who we are.

Galai’s photo went international when he posted the picture of himself yawning. This is why people have to be careful when posting things on the Internet, to protect their own privacy. In addition the protecting ourselves, having more privacy can protect the rights of other individuals. Kadish asks herself “If your face isn’t private property, what is? ” (Kadish 262). Kadish is right because if Galai posted a picture of himself and other people used it, then how many other people are having the same dilemma? If Galai would have had more privacy, no one could have had the rights to use his photo.

Peter singer says, “We sign away our privacy in exchange for the conveniences of modern living, giving corporations access to information about our financial circumstances and our spending habits, which will then be used to target us for ads or to analyze our customer habits” (Singer 462). With the use of technology our privacy is decreasing. Kadish also says “There’s something glorious and terrible about a world in which a picture of one’s face can sweep around the globe this way, part of a human chorus changing us for better and worse” (Kadish 262).

We ask ourselves if having technology has improved us as human beings. The answer is that technology has helped us because it has made the world simple and easy, but we also became bad human beings because people abuse of technology. Singer is right when he said that we sign away our privacy for the convenience of modern living, because in Galai’s case he gave up his privacy in return of using the internet. He posted a photo and now it is in the hands of millions of people. When we put our information on the Internet it makes it available for other people to see it.

Technology and the Internet should be private so nobody can use other people’s work and information. People abuse on the use of technology and that is what makes this world less private, and we are not protecting the rights of other individuals. With the Panopticon we will be more conscious of what we post, helping both privacy and morality. As Singer mentions in his article, “For those who think privacy is an inalienable right, the modern surveillance culture is a means of controlling behavior and stifling dissent.

But perhaps the inspection principle, universally applied, could also be the perfection of democracy, the device that allows us to know what our governments are really doing, that keeps tabs on corporate abuses, and that protects our individual freedoms just as it subjects our personal lives to public scrutiny” (Singer 463). The Panopticon is a building designed to observe other people without them knowing they are being watched. In Kadish’s article Flickr is the Panopticon because people post pictures, and nobody knows who is observing them. Kadish says, “No one had licensed the photo or contacted Noam about using it.

Curious as to how far his face had spread, Noam eventually tried searching Flickr for screaming images then using a tool called Tineye to search for images that match an uploaded picture” (Kadish 260). When Galai started observing the images that people had posted he had seen the many different ways people had used his image. Michel Foucault described the Panopticon as the “perfection of power” (Singer 464). If people had more privacy the photo could be protected and no one would have had the right to use the photo, and people would be moral and would have asked Galai for permission to use his photo.

If people had known that the artist of the photo was observing them, people would have used the image differently or wouldn’t have used it at all. When people post pictures on flicker they don’t know who is watching then so they are more conscious of what they are posting. Therefore, having more privacy is essential for quality of life. Privacy can protect the rights of other individuals. With the Panopticon, privacy can be managed by being able to see who is observing us and what happens in the online world.

The Panopticon is a round building with a tower in the middle where you can observe other people but those people being observed will not know if they are being watched or not. Sousveillance is visual monitoring from human level. With more privacy people will not have the right to use other peoples photos, and use those photos as if they were their own. In Kadish’s article we could see how people sometimes lose control of their own privacy, while in Singer’s article it talks about how we can be in control of our own privacy.

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