INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY & PRIVACY

Information Technology & Privacy

Information Technology & Privacy

Introduction

In today's technologically advanced world, where online presence has become a necessity for increasing number of organizations and people, privacy is, without doubt, one of the most significant aspects of computer information technologies. In 'Privacy', Deborah G. Johnson attempts to highlight the importance of the issue especially in the democratic societies, while exploring the sophisticated ways in which a great majority of those who benefit from computer and information technology are being watched. She intelligently distinguishes between a person taking every step of his with caution knowing that every single step of his is being watched and recorded somewhere in a database, and the person who has no such worries and thus leads his life freely and independently, doing whatever pleases him (Johnson, 2001).

As the author observed, protecting one's privacy in today's digital age is something very difficult to achieve and present trends suggests that this is likely to stay that way in the near future (Johnson & Miller, 2009). As information about particular group of people organizations have become very essential for both public and private sector, it has become nearly impossible to get rid of the acts of 'invasion of privacy' any time soon. This paper aims at discussing whether enhanced capacity of computers to collect, store and manipulate personal data has benefitted the society or the harms resulted by the greater capacity exceeds those benefits. The paper also attempts to find out ways through which benefits of the modern technology can be embraced, while not risking the harms it inflicts upon society.

Discussion

Today, computers, in a very easy and cheap ways, made it possible to collect and store detailed information about individuals and groups to such as extent that has never been possible only a few decades ago. Local, ...