Rights to Privacy

 

 

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Introduction

The right to privacy is one of the most debated topics recently. For a long time, people have been fighting for rights to privacy. The efforts have led to emergence of numerous international and local laws that seek to protect the right to privacy for individuals. In fact, right to privacy is recognized universally as a fundamental human right (Angel, 2000). There are numerous cases where organizations, individuals and other agencies have been convicted due to violation of the laws that seek to protect right to privacy. Consequently, organizations have been striving to protect personal information from leaking to unauthorized persons, groups of agencies, with the aim of evading legal liabilities that they may face. At the same time, protection of unauthorized information from leaking is also an ethical issue. Allowing sensitive personal information to leak or providing it to unauthorized persons intentionally is ethically wrong (Angel, 2000).

Despite the presence of laws and ethical standards that seek to protect violation of the right to privacy, numerous challenges have emerged during the digital age, which hamper the efforts of organizations aimed at protecting private information from leaking. The problem is quite rampant among e-commerce organizations (Caruso, 2007). Organizations have lost the ability to absolutely protect private data. The fact that private data is increasingly leaking from organizations without the intention of the organizations to do so has brought about challenges in the universal application of the laws that seek to protect privacy. Business organizations and scholars have been searching for a solution to the problem of data, but no practical solution has been found so far (Caruso, 2007). At the same time, a debate has recently emerged regarding whether business organizations should have right to privacy (Pollman, 2014). This paper discusses various issues surrounding the debate on right to privacy.

Discussion

Amidst internet evolution, numerous online companies have emerged that engage in e-commerce. The organizations have databases that enable them to carry out transactions with consumers just like in the real world. However, as Caruso (2007) explains, the online organizations have been gathering a lot of private and sensitive data from the consumers. The consumers end up submitting information and carrying out transactions with the online organization without any worry of data leakage, just as they do with other organizations in the real world. They give out information such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, names, phone numbers and addresses. The same information is contained in the consumers’ credit card processors and bank databases. This implies that if such data leaks to cyber thieves, they might use it to access information contained in credit card processors and bank databases of consumers (Caruso, 2007).

Caruso (2007) carried out an analysis of different online companies to determine the sensitive private information they collect from the consumers. During the assessment of Mint.com, Caruso (2007) found that that online company was connecting consumers with sponsors who offered them with specialized services. In turn, the consumers were supposed to upload their personal and business information to the company. The company used the information to connect to their credit unions, banks and credit-card providers and then automatically update accounts and transactions of the consumers held in those institutions. This implies that the organization accessed and even controlled business data of the consumers even without the need for their approval (Caruso, 2007). Another company called Dopplr created a site that allowed the users to upload their personal information about travels, such as their trusted fellow travelers. In addition, the site used to connect with FaceBook and collected information about the users’ friend lists (Caruso, 2007).

Prior to the technological evolution, personal and business data held by organizations on behalf of their consumers was kept in hard copies in files. As such, it was easy to prevent leakage of private information from an organization to unauthorized persons. However, issues that lead to leakage of data that is held online, such as data breach, data theft, dumpster diving and computer viruses have become quite rampant. For instance, data held by online companies for around 77 million people of the US leaked to unauthorized persons in 2006 alone (Caruso, 2007). At the same time, people have continued to issue private details to online companies without worrying about the possible leakage. Government agencies from different nations and regions have responded to the issue through establishing and enforcing laws that hold online organizations responsible for data loss in cases where the data loss could have been avoided. A good example is the case of TJX Companies, in which data leakage too identity thieves, which could have been avoided, led the companies to be held accountable for violation of right to privacy of the customers. However, numerous cases have emerged in which companies are not held legally accountable due to the fact that they could have hardly predicted incidences leading to leakage of consumers’ data (Angel, 2000). In such case, laws fail to offer protection to the consumers’ right to privacy.

Sometimes, sensitive information owned by corporations ends up leaking to unauthorized persons. Unlike the personal private information, the existing laws fail to give an effective remedy to organizations that encounter such situations. In most cases, their cases are dismissed or the judges diverge from the main issue. This raises the question on whether there should be laws that protect right to privacy of corporations (Pollman, 2014). In response, business organizations and data security experts have been focusing on devising ways of protecting data from loss. For instance, an organization known as Parity has been investing in a project called CloudTripper that is aimed at shifting online data control from organizations to consumers. Organizations have been in a joint project called the Identity Governance Framework that is aimed at enhancing effective control and protection of data held by companies in order to minimize or eliminate chances of leakage. Security experts, Wiegel, Van den Hoven and Lokhorst (2005), proposed for establishment of a computer program that would be based on a model in which information will act as an agent that would effectively regulate dissemination of data and preserve its integrity. Other security experts, such as Neuenschwander, have proposed for establishment of a program that would shift the responsibility for the data loss from online organizations to consumers (Caruso, 2007).

However, some data security experts believe that irrespective of the numerous proposals for data protection, data leakage cannot be fully avoided (Caruso, 2007). Similarly, Angel (2000) argued that it is difficult to establish ways of fully protecting private information from leakage. The implication off this is that it is difficult to fully protect right to privacy, taking into account the real situations. Even though there are laws that have been established to enforce the right, they do not apply in cases where consumers’ private data leaks from an organization, yet thorough investigations indicate that it was difficult to avoid the leakage (Angel, 2000). Angel (2000) argues it is not possible for individuals and organizations to reclaim and maintain right of privacy. As such, Angel (2000) suggests that what is needed is to try to make a balance between safety and privacy and to make ethical use of private data.

 

 

Conclusion

Overall, the above discussion demonstrates that right to privacy is a debate that has been ranging for some time and is likely to continue in the future. The debate can only end if effective solution to enhance protection of the right is found. Considering the recent trends, however, it seems that a solution may not be found soon. Online companies are still gathering private information in order to develop trust with consumers and transact with them. Consumers are willing to give out the information without worrying about the possibility of data leakage. At the same time, cyber crime has been evolving to higher levels, with evolution in technology. Identity thieves are working hard to identify loopholes that they may use to steel data from companies. At the same time, no practical solution has been found so far that can help to solve the problem. The proposed solutions are mainly in theory form. Even where organizations have lost data, there are instances where investigations reports indicate that they are the victims, rather than perpetrators. In such cases, the organizations are not held legally responsible, indicating that the existing laws fail to offer full protection to the right of privacy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Angel, C. (2000). The Right to Privacy. Journal of Information Ethics, 9(2), 11-25

Caruso, D. (2007). Securing Very Important Data: Your Own. The New York Times,

Pollman, E. (2014). Corporate Right to Policy. Minnesota Law Review, 99(27), 27-63

Wiegel, V., Van den Hoven, M. J. & Lokhorst, G. J. C. (2005). Privacy, deontic epistemic action

logic and software agents. Ethics and Information Technology, 7, 251–264