1.

INTRODUCTION

We are currently living in the so-called information age which can be described as
an era were economic activities are mainly information based (an age of
fractionalization). This is due to the development and use of technology. The main
characteristics of this era can be summarized as a rise in the number of knowledge
workers, a world that has become more open - in the sense of communication
(global village/Gutenberg galaxy) and internationalization (trans-border flow of
data).

This paradigm shift brings new ethical and juridical problems which are mainly
related to issues such as the right of access to information, the right of privacy
which is threatened by the emphasis on the free flow of information, and the
protection of the economic interest of the owners of intellectual property.

In this paper the ethical questions related to the right to privacy of the individual
which is threatened by the use of technology will be discussed. Specific attention
will be given to the challenges these ethical problems pose to the information
professional. A number of practical guidelines, based on ethical norms will be laid
down.

Privacy:

Privacy is the capacity to negotiate social relationships by controlling access to

personal information. As laws, policies, and technological design increasingly
structure people's relationships with social institutions, individual privacy faces
new threats and new opportunities. Over the last several years, the realm of
technology and privacy has been transformed, creating a landscape that is both
dangerous and encouraging.

Privacy is an important right because it is a necessary condition for other rights

such as freedom and personal autonomy. There is thus a relationship between
privacy, freedom and human dignity. Respecting a person's privacy is to
acknowledge such a person's right to freedom and to recognize that individual as
an autonomous human being.

Here are some other technologies that bug my privates:

-Internet sites that gather and share my personal information and internet activity.
-Search engines that show ads for products I searched for yesterday. That's
creepy!
-Free email services that use artificial intelligence to scan my email and show
relevant ads to the side.
-GPS devices. This abused technology will be used more often, and in more
places, as gaps tracking devices shrink in size and cost.
-Genetic profiling, aka genetic fingerprinting, is a DNA testing method used to
find out if you are more likely to have certain types of diseases in your lifetime.
There are concerns that insurance providers and employers could use this
information to discriminate.
-Nano-sized microphones and flying insect cameras are in the visible future. What
will privacy be like when nowhere is private?
-Invisibility cloaks are for real and they will only get better. What will they be
hiding?
-Being monitored in public places of business to discover my shopping habits.
-Facial recognition cameras.
-Traffic cameras.

Yes, we are tracking you, but look at all the cool stuff you get!
Most technologies listed above have a good reason to be used, or it would simply
be called spying.
-Internet sites store cookies and other tracking code to help remember you when
you revisit a web site to make navigation easier.
-Search engines show ads for things I am interested in (unless my girlfriend
searched for purses on my computer).
-Free email services aren't really free. What was I thinking?
-GPS devices. Help me find my car in a big parking lot.
-Genetic profiling, could help find cures to diseases.
-Invisibility cloaks could help shield things from radiation.
-Being monitored in public places of business to improve your shopping
experience.
-Facial recognition cameras can help spot bad guys.
-Traffic cameras (only upset me when I get caught).

Who is following you on social media?

If you’re not already concerned about the police’s reach into your life, how do you
feel about them reading your social media posts? And using the aforementioned
facial recognition technology on your photos? Guidance produced by the
Association of Chief Police Officers on the policing of anti-fracking protests in
2011 stated: “Social media is a vital part of any […] intelligence picture.” And
Whitehall chiefs monitored social media messages relating to public
demonstrations against a massive cull of badgers in 2013.

Even if your social media accounts are all set to ‘public’, does that really mean
your Facebook should be an open book to the police? Let’s use an analogy. If you
were walking through a busy city Centre, minding your own business and not
doing anything suspicious, how would you feel if a police officer followed you
wherever you went? Would this make you feel safer? And would you think that
because you’re in public, you’ve forfeited your right to privacy?
Behind closed doors

OK, so let’s say you never go to a coffee shop again. And you’re going to close all
your social media accounts. And never set foot in a public place again. Surely you
can have some privacy within your own home, right?

Wrong. The preying sensors of modernity are as embedded in our homes as they
are anywhere else. The internet of things’ (IoT) might sound like a cyber version of
the ‘Day of the Triffids’, but internet-connected devices ranging from Smart TVs
to smart meters, not to mention the HAL-9000-like virtual assistants like Siri and
Alexa, are now remarkably prosaic.

At the same time as offering us convenience, efficiency, and automation, IoT

devices are also building a detailed, revealing and intimate data profile about us,
which manufacturers and government surveillance programmers can tap into.

For example, smart meters collect energy usage data at high frequencies – typically
every five, fifteen or 30 minutes. That level of granularity reveals how much
electricity is being used in a home and when, which in turn can paint an intimate
picture of a person’s household activities and lifestyle, and even indicate personal
characteristics. One British analytics company Enzo boasted: “We take energy
consumption data from smart meters and sensors. We analyses it and build a highly
personalized profile for each and every utility customer”.

The internet of things is entwining our mundane experiences into a much bigger
ecosystem that we can barely fathom the ultimate consequences of.

So, is the very notion of privacy in 2019 an oxymoron?

Corporations and governments would love for us to think so. It would suit them for
us to willingly forfeit our data as the price of entry for living in a modern,
digitized, networked society. But as Mark Zuckerberg found earlier this year,
people aren’t happy about just being nodes in his vast digital network. We have a
right to be left alone while we wander down the high street, stop off for a coffee,
and even share a picture of it on Facebook before we return home and lock the
door behind us
Expectations of anonymity and confidentiality

The capacity of new technologies to record our activities challenges our

expectations of anonymity and confidentiality. Whereas new technologies are
offered to us as new and better ways of doing essentially the same things we have
always done, they are in fact changing the fabric of our communications. Most of
us have expectations that our private communications will remain private.
However, how can we know, now, what is private and what is public? While we
may use e-mail in the same way as we pick up the telephone or write a letter, we
cannot be sure that such a communication will be limited to the person of our
choice. Electronic mail via the Internet is generally understood as being inherently
insecure, as are the accompanying information storage systems. And contrary to
many people’s expectations, items posted to chat groups or newsgroups may not be
anonymous. As noted by an international grouping of Data Protection
Commissioners considering data protection issues on the Internet, “Never send or
keep anything in your mailbox that you would mind seeing on the evening news.”5
The growing use of the Internet and e-mail in universities, by both staff and
students, would suggest that these problems will become of increasing importance
for educational institutions in the future.

Privacy as an issue of personal responsibility

Privacy is both an issue of political regulation, and one of personal concern, in the
sense that it concerns the balance between public/personal security and liberty. The
difficulty, when it comes to the introduction of new technologies, is the way in
which these are used, perceived and handled, not only by state actors in order to
ensure security in the public space, but also by individual users in their own,
increasingly virtual space. Major concerns have arisen following the widespread
use of ‘‘social networks’’: users tend to underestimate the dangers of publishing
private matters and, hence, tend to underestimate the importance of carefully
choosing what they want to keep private. Once published in virtual space the data
never disappear

Most people know by now social media isn’t free – it’s paid for with the collection of
its users’ sometimes-sensitive information. Your GPS system keeps track of your
movements, and your smart TV or webcam can watch you. Almost all the
information these devices collect can be sold to companies or used by governments
and law enforcement to keep tabs or gather evidence. At the same time, we use
technology so frequently as a society because it allows us to do things faster and with
much less effort. Is the trade-off worth it, or are we selling our souls to the devil?

We conducted a survey to find out where public opinion lies on the question of
technology and privacy or security. People of different age groups and different
occupations answered questions to determine how bothersome certain devices were
to them regarding privacy violations.

As it turns out, some feel technology is far too convenient to give up despite its
flaws, while others would trash their devices if they found out it was spying on
them. Of course, many were of mixed opinion and considered these issues on a case-
by-case basis. While the spectrum of sentiment on the issue is quite varied, the
discussion of technology and privacy is one of paramount importance today.
Continue reading to learn what we found.

INDUSTRY PRIVACY CONCERNS

Since many people depend on technology for some, if not most, aspects of their life,
it’s understandable these people would have opinions on the broader question of tech,
convenience, and privacy. Interestingly, one’s occupation appears to have an impact
on which aspect of privacy violation they find most egregious.

It’s not surprising to find that 4 out of 5 of the industries at high risk for criminal
cyber activity appear on the list, which is primarily concerned with the criminal side
of privacy violation.

Health care, government, finance, and transportation industries have all had to
increase their security budgets recently to prevent a rise in cyberattacks. Arts and
entertainment, which has been harmed by online piracy for decades now, is also
uncomfortable with criminality. Outside of more high-profile crimes in the sphere of
industry, homemakers, retirees (who own property, presumably), and retailers also
feel threatened by cybercriminals, who have been targeting individual digital
property at an increased rate over the past few years.

Industries threatened by government privacy intrusion include the industries we often

see battling regulation in the public eye. Technology, broadly, which includes the
fields of marketing and information technology, has taken a big hit
financially following the revelation of the NSA’s surveillance program and the
government’s eavesdropping on tech companies.

GENDERS SURVEILLED

While men and women seemed to have proportional concerns about privacy in the
digital age, a few interesting outliers exist. Responses were similarly low (less than
10 percent of each gender were concerned) on the questions of whether privacy
intrusion bothered the person at all and whether the data should be used in legal
proceedings. The low returns on these questions could be a result of the sentiment
rearing its head again or a result of people finding concern in other areas of privacy
violation.

Much higher returns were generated on questions of tracking, conversation

monitoring, and the sale of data for advertising. Women were more concerned
overall with identity and location tracking. A variety of digital issues
disproportionately affects women, which include stalking and location tracking by
ill-intentioned people. Men had concerns with these issues as well but perhaps didn’t
feel as physically threatened by them. Where men took more issue than women: the
selling of personal data to advertisers and monitoring of conversations and activity.
It can be disconcerting to look up a new fridge only to find your Facebook and news
sites flooded with appliance advertisements the next morning. Not to mention the
annoyance of a sluggish website bogged down by advertisements. More than a
quarter of desktop users now use ad blockers – and that’s not counting mobile users.

PRIVACY THROUGH THE AGES

Different generations have different relationships with technology and, as such, have
different concerns about specific technologies and their relationship to privacy and
security. Those 65 and older appeared to be very distrustful of technology, recording
higher levels of concern than younger generations in almost every field. Those in the
age bracket of 45-64 all found location tracking, home security, and smart device
privacy issues to be the most threatening. People who fell in this age group appeared
to be the least distrustful of fitness tracking devices, although they still disliked them
more than younger generations.

From age 18 to 44, the data trends looked rather similar. A uniform distrust of social
media existed, but they regarded smart thermostats, fitness trackers, and public
surveillance as less of an issue than older generations. Younger age groups may be
less concerned than others about these issues because they trust businesses to keep
their data secure. On the other hand, they seem to be warier of home and smart car
security. Interestingly, 18- to 24-year-olds recorded their highest level of concern was
home security.

THE VICE OF ALL DEVICES

Each device we use possesses a unique capability to compromise our privacy. Two of
the top three issues involved being watched and tracked by cameras. Most people
were very uncomfortable with the eerie prospect of being spied on through cameras
on their TVs, though this possibility exists in webcams and smartphone cameras, as
well. Interestingly, the second biggest concern involved data intrusion by anti-virus
software. Taking third place was biometric facial recognition, another issue that
depends on camera surveillance to succeed. Strangely, surveillance by public security
cameras was among the least concerning to people.

Despite social media being one of the largest data collectors of this list, less than half
of those surveyed found it to be a threat. This might be related to the growing rates of
social media use over the years. People were also not quite as concerned about smart
home, smart car, and smart thermostat security system hacking, and this lack of
suspicion about these devices seems to jive with the high level of interest among the
public in owning connected homes and cars.

However, if you’re of the opinion Americans should be more aware of privacy issues
than they have been, you will be refreshed to see no device was responded to with a
level of concern less than 32 percent.

THE PRIVACY ULTIMATUM

When asked about whether privacy violations would make a person reconsider using
convenient tech devices, a rather stark divide appeared between the generations.
Millennials (and some a few years older) responded that fewer than 20 percent would
forsake technology because of its intrusion into their personal life. This percentage
aligns with the findings of many similar studies: Young people don’t really care what
is done with their data. In other words, younger people make the most use of
technology but exhibit the least concern.

The situation changed quite drastically, however, between the age brackets of 35 to
44 and 45 to 54. This might be that 35-year-olds are still technically millennials, and
those just a few years older may have similar sentiments toward technology. Allow
for one decade, though, and respondents were almost twice as likely to stop using a
device that violated their privacy. The older one became, the more likely they were to
adhere to this line of thinking. Older generations primarily use technology to keep in
touch with loved ones, so it’s likely the “do-or-die” sentiment young people feel
toward tech does not permeate older Americans to the same degree.

Technology Is Invading Our Privacy

Technology has become a part of us. Your device probably knows more about
you than your close friend.

Because so many people own one of these devices—or all three—it's important to
realize that as technology advances, it's becoming more intrusive in our personal
lives. Personal information about us is constantly being gathered. Your device
probably knows more about you than your close friend. Technology has become a
part of us. It carries our contacts, calendar, personal messages to friends and
colleagues, and other important information—so what are we risking by using
these devices?

Storage for personal information

Since we're all so comfortable with technology, we begin to get in the habit of
storing personal information on our devices. This personal information can
include anything from your Social Security number to your bank account or
credit card numbers. I understand that we all need that personal information from
time to time, however it's ignorant of us to think that the information is safe and
will be completely removed from the memory once we delete it, especially since
it's been shown multiple times that deleted information can be recovered.

If you opt to store your personal information on your laptop, phone, or computer,
then you're putting your personal information at risk for strangers, hackers, or
identity thieves to gain access to it. Luckily, there are a couple of ways you can
protect your information.

The first is to password protect everything from your main screen to your
banking apps. Make sure the password isn't something too obvious, such as 1234
or 0000; instead choose a more complicated password that includes a
combination of numbers, letters, and even special characters. The second thing
you should do is make sure you are only accessing your personal information on
encrypted websites. These sites code your information to confirm that it cannot
be accessed by hackers. You can verify a site has encrypted your information by
making sure the URL starts with “https.”

Location tracking

Location tracking is a feature that's included in nearly device and app available
today. It's used by Google to help you get turn-by-turn directions and by
Facebook to tag your location and your camera to provide a roadmap of where
photos were taken. It's actually a fun feature to have, if you're willing to give up
your privacy and let the world and companies know where you are at all times. I
would guess that your spouse doesn't even know where you are every single
minute of the day, so why you allow your phone to track it?

Tracking your online activity

Besides tracking your location, our devices are also tracking our online activity
through tracking cookies, or data sent from a website and saved to your Web
browser. These cookies create a blueprint of websites you visited on the Internet
and can even contribute—using third-party cookies —to the personalized
advertisements you see on various websites. Cookies even have the ability to save
such personal information as your address, credit card number, and passwords for
certain websites.

Even though technology makes our lives a lot easier, it's important to make sure
we're not allowing it to completely invade our privacy. That's why it's important
to be very cautious about the information we store on our devices as well as be
aware of how our devices and Web browsers use our information. In certain
situations, it might be better to resort to old-fashioned ways of storing
information—such as in a personal safe or safe deposit box—to make sure it
remains private, instead of so heavily depending on technology.

CONCLUSION

In today’s world, it doesn’t matter if you’re a 25-year-old landscaper or a 55-year-old

dad – you’re likely thinking about what it means to encounter technology at every
moment, every day. However, the feelings people display toward the implications
these devices have on our privacy vary quite widely.
Young people thrived on the conveniences of technology and had some concerns,
while older generations, who were able to get by in a time before its advent, seemed
more distrustful of tech’s consequences. Men considered these consequences
differently than women did. Even people across different industries had varying
thoughts about what technology was good for and what the greatest risks were of its
privacy shortcomings.

If anything, the wide array of opinions on privacy in the digital age is a

demonstration of rising awareness among the American public. Even 10 years ago,
this level of comprehension would not have existed. Whether people fear camera
surveillance, social media, or don’t really care at all about technology’s
preeminence, it’s assuring to know information regarding the subject has become
more widely available and discussed. Finally, people of all walks of life are giving
these important issues more and more thought.

METHODOLOGY

We surveyed 1,019 people aged 18 and older about their opinions on security and
other electronic devices and whether they felt the risk to privacy was worth the
security and convenience benefits. Using the results of the survey, we were able to
segment responses based on age, gender, employment, and other demographics. The
visualizations were created using the data generated from the survey.

FAIR USE STATEMENT

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credit to the authors.