WEB PRIVACY ETHICAL ISSUES

Web Privacy Ethical Issues

Web Privacy Ethical Issues

Introduction

The change that has occurred today in communications involves more than just a technical revolution, the complete transformation of that through which humanity captures the world around him and that verify and express (Johnson, 2009). Privacy has long been acknowledged as an individual preference for engaging with public worlds. The social and technological changes of 21st-century societies have vastly expanded the realms of interaction and visibility and created new challenges for privacy at individual, interpersonal, organizational, and political levels. How individuals enact privacy within larger social contexts as they interact in global, networked societies with a multitude of interdependent relationships creates new complexities in understanding the dynamics between private and public worlds.

Discussion and Analysis

Since the introduction of the Internet and particularly the Web in the mid-1990s, there has been a tremendous interest regarding new forms of communication and social relationships that are enabled in online, or virtual, environments. Additionally, social media and social networking technologies are creating more significant milieus that influence how people communicate, relate, and organize in both online and off-line contexts.

Internet penetration also raises many ethical questions about issues such as privacy, security and confidentiality of data, law and intellectual property law, pornography, hate sites, spreading rumors and slander disguised news, and more. We shall refer briefly to some of them later, while recognizing that require continuous analysis and discussion of all parties involved. We do not consider Internet primarily as a source of problems, but rather as a source of profit for the human race. But these benefits can only be fully realized if they solve the problems of its own.

According to Clarke (2010), the Internet and personal computers not only give consumers a vastly increased opportunity to obtain knowledge, but they also offer other forces a means to glean all sorts of personal data. Hackers routinely target companies to steal mass data sets. Learn how to protect your privacy with these tips.

The Challenges to Be Faced

In the 20th century, it was simply not possible to build a comprehensive, manageable database when the only means of extracting information was face-to-face contact and furtively searching for incriminating, often well-hidden, physical documents. In addition, when the filing cabinet was the only means of storage, documents outlining the opinions and habits of a group of a million people would have filled many rooms. Today a single laptop could hold a similar data set and pull up the desired information within moments. The spread of data collection has as much to do with mission creep as with governments' and corporations' instinctive desire to know as much as possible. Since this imperative focuses on the interests of a few (a corporate board, a ruling elite, etc.) it does not qualify as ethical.

Ethical Arguments for web Privacy

In today's world, the rights of the individual are increasingly subject to the power of groups. The natural desire to keep one's affairs private is beset on all sides by ever more intrusive technologies and ...