The Holy Grail of Privacy
Our
culture's concept of privacy spans a wide perspective and is subject to the
individual's understanding and in some cases, legal protections. As
technology clouds our perspective; the protocols, expectations and practices of
conventional wisdom established to protect an individual's privacy become less
clear. The advent of computing has forced a quantum change in daily life
and the structure and function of the society in which we live. The world
of the Internet, with the computing power inherent in its connectivity,
radically impacts the individual by allowing the restructuring and
redistributing of one's personally associated information. Such
"progress" is changing our expectations of personal privacy and
quality of life. In reaction to these changes, public opinion and
political will are reacting to protect the privacy of the individual.
Imagine, with the advent of radically new computer-based lifestyles, one's data is seamlessly categorized and continually collected and monitored. Previously obscure daily activities and routines are documented and tracked. Travel (electronic airline ticketing, scan-based tolls for parking, roadway use), communications (telephone calling records and e-mail records collected and accessed by ISP's, employers) and credit card use data are all collected electronically. This collection allows instantaneous and selective monitoring of anyone's daily activities. Routine use of this data is not necessarily a troubling idea for the average citizen. But the potential of aggregate data collection by anyone wanting to "put the pieces together" and the ability to effectively and expediently do so, presents new challenges in order to prevent intrusion into the rights of the individual's in the "pursuit of happiness" and to meet public demand for privacy.
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