Privacy: the state of being free from intrusion or disturbance in one's private life or affairs. Most people would almost instinctively agree with this dictionary definition. However, in an online, always connected world, can we (or even should we) talk about privacy in any meaningful fashion?
Should we be worried about privacy in an online, always connected world? There is a large amount of concern nowadays regarding privacy issues mainly due to the increasing penetration of computers into our lives. Is this concern justified or is this a concern mainly felt by oldsters who do not "get" the wonderful new world of online connectivity?
Today the basic problem regarding privacy is that the technology that affects our privacy has advanced very rapidly and our laws and more importantly our attitudes have not kept pace. An older generation which grew up in a time when the information gathering capabilities of institutions and individuals was considerably circumscribed feel appalled at the sheer intrusive capabilities of modern technology. A younger generation which has grown up in tandem with this new developing technology is slowly starting to feel that there may be an issue with privacy and the technology that they now take for granted.
Whether this is actually an issue or not is determined by the extent to which we as individuals and as nations are willing to be accept intrusions into our daily lives. Since the birth of empires and states, there has been a tension between those who want to exercise control which involves reducing the amount of privacy and the rest of society which desires at the very least a minimum amount of privacy. In earlier times, the cost of gathering privacy reducing information was high enough to reduce the level of intrusion in most people's lives. This dynamic started to change with industrialization. One of the effects of industrialization was that it steadily reduced the cost of gathering, storing and sorting information about people. This was a major reason why Communism degenerated into a totalitarian society. In an earlier age, Communism simply could not have developed in the fashion it did; the technology of control was just not refined enough. The difference between today and twenty years ago is that the above-mentioned technology of control is now much more subtle than before. In the old Soviet state, control was not merely intrusive, it was obvious and obnoxious. This kind of control eventually engenders a reaction which is all the greater the longer it is imposed. This is why North Korea for example is actually a fragile state whereas Iran which has a less obvious control oriented regime is not to the same extent.
The internet has enabled a dramatic reduction in the cost of gathering and storing all sorts of information. At the same time, developments in hardware specially chip design and storage and developments in distributed computing coupled with high speed links within and between networks have
Should we be worried about privacy in an online, always connected world? There is a large amount of concern nowadays regarding privacy issues mainly due to the increasing penetration of computers into our lives. Is this concern justified or is this a concern mainly felt by oldsters who do not "get" the wonderful new world of online connectivity?
Today the basic problem regarding privacy is that the technology that affects our privacy has advanced very rapidly and our laws and more importantly our attitudes have not kept pace. An older generation which grew up in a time when the information gathering capabilities of institutions and individuals was considerably circumscribed feel appalled at the sheer intrusive capabilities of modern technology. A younger generation which has grown up in tandem with this new developing technology is slowly starting to feel that there may be an issue with privacy and the technology that they now take for granted.
Whether this is actually an issue or not is determined by the extent to which we as individuals and as nations are willing to be accept intrusions into our daily lives. Since the birth of empires and states, there has been a tension between those who want to exercise control which involves reducing the amount of privacy and the rest of society which desires at the very least a minimum amount of privacy. In earlier times, the cost of gathering privacy reducing information was high enough to reduce the level of intrusion in most people's lives. This dynamic started to change with industrialization. One of the effects of industrialization was that it steadily reduced the cost of gathering, storing and sorting information about people. This was a major reason why Communism degenerated into a totalitarian society. In an earlier age, Communism simply could not have developed in the fashion it did; the technology of control was just not refined enough. The difference between today and twenty years ago is that the above-mentioned technology of control is now much more subtle than before. In the old Soviet state, control was not merely intrusive, it was obvious and obnoxious. This kind of control eventually engenders a reaction which is all the greater the longer it is imposed. This is why North Korea for example is actually a fragile state whereas Iran which has a less obvious control oriented regime is not to the same extent.
The internet has enabled a dramatic reduction in the cost of gathering and storing all sorts of information. At the same time, developments in hardware specially chip design and storage and developments in distributed computing coupled with high speed links within and between networks have
