Privacy has been a repeated concern of many generation. This is the reason privacy became a fundamental right and is recognized by constitution of mostly all the countries. According to the Fourth Amendment of United State Constitution– “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.” However, will this right to privacy, that was put forth in the year 1791, work in today’s rapidly-changing advanced world?
With the growing digital age and technological advancements, these privacy laws probably aren’t enough. They don’t regulate the private sector, the government’s ‘global surveillance’, and the ‘Big Data’ or simply the things that are a huge part of our lives now.
With the increasing use of social media, the data that is collected from each user is now so huge that the private sector companies like Facebook, and Google can perfectly predict user’s behavior with master’s accuracy. They then sell this data to the advertisers to gain maximum profit through targeted (or personalized) advertisements. There is literally no one to regulate this breach of privacy but why is that?
Before creating our account on these platforms, we as a user non-hesitantly accepts their privacy policy agreement, which takes our power to argue and object. These privacy policies are filled with legal jargons to repel users from reading it and to make it difficult for the eager ones from understanding it. By accepting these privacy policies, we give full permission to the companies to track our location, and record our data. However, if we had proper digital privacy laws, there wouldn’t even be a need to read these policies.
There is a serious need of including digital privacy laws to protect users from falling into the trap of private sector companies. In this digitally advanced world, offline privacy is no longer an issue to be concerned about, when even easier methods are available to breach consumer privacy. The fundamental right to privacy doesn’t contain any importance to the people, until a revised ‘right to digital privacy’ is made fundamental.
Our right to privacy is always an interesting topic, especially in relation to technology. I remember having debates about if the gov’t had the right to track our phones to search for potential terrorists. Of course, Apple and other groups disagreed. I enjoyed how you also included the fourth amendment and questioned its relevance to today.
It is genuinely terrifying to learn about our privacy and how much we are exposed to the rest of the world. Honestly, I cannot say if I was surprised to read this. However, it was the first time someone laid down the facts and reality of technological development and our exposure on those platforms. Truly interesting, and frightening.