Due primarily to technology, contemporary life can be likened to horrific science fiction in the 1980s, due to the lack of privacy that engendered therein. Americans love their privacy and protecting it has been argued as part of the fundamental rights albeit the same is not expressly provided for under the American constitution (Podgers & Granat, 2015). Privacy is, therefore, more of an ethical issue than a legal one. In the 1980s and 1990s as government security apparatus developed ways and means of improving security through spying, the issue of personal privacy versus public security became a major ethical argument. The nature and progression of the argument created the impression that it was the state versus the populace with the state arguing for a sacrifice of privacy for the sake of security and the populace vehemently declining since privacy was a personal right (Morgan, 2014). Advancement and proliferation of technology however, placed the same tools and gadgets that the government had used on spying in the hands of the populace and gradually, the populace started a massive breach of personal security that defies all held ethical principles on privacy.
Having Technology at Hand has Changed the Ethical Position on Privacy
A couple in their honeymoon will share very private and sometimes reprehensible photographs and even videos online so that their friends can see that they are having a good time. Their friends on the other hand, will comment with congratulatory messages and request for more details. An advanced form of this concept is the advent of Reality TV. The primary difference between the 1980s and today is technological advancement, which has made it possible for almost everyone to have a phone with a video camera, audio recorder, and internet capability. The traditional ethical position would have made these gadgets useless so ethics was discarded to enable the embrace of technology (Morgan, 2014). Reality TV entails multimedia recorders following ordinary Americans everywhere they go during the normal live activities. The content recorded by this multimedia recorders, which generally also include video content is streamed on television as a TV programme. An advanced form of the same has been developed through the advent of online streaming where raw and unedited content from people’s lives is streamed for all to see. Similarly, social networks such as Facebook have developed live streaming social media components.
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This means anyone with a Facebook account and a phone can record anything and stream it live across the globe through social media. This is a major ethical revolution since only a few decades ago, Americans were up in protest due to allegations that the National Security Agency was recording telephone conversations and taking pictures and videos using satellite systems and security cameras. Albeit it was understood that the NSA data was to be very well protected, kept private and used only for security purposes, the populace protested that having the data in the first place, even without using it was ethically wrong since it amounted to a breach of privacy (Podgers & Granat, 2015).
It is worthy of notice that social media use cuts across all age groups with even the older generation of Americans using social media to display very private information about themselves. Americans post home videos, some of them even containing nudities, they post their recorded telephone conversations, private emails and even soliloquys expressing their private and intimate thoughts. These are the exact same things that Americans opposed NSA about only two decades ago. It is clear from the foregoing that the fact that the technology and ability to record and disperse personal information has become available to the populace, their ethical position relating to privacy has completely shifted and what was considered to be an anathema is now applauded and openly practiced (Podgers & Granat, 2015).
The Contrary Opinion
A section of commentators have however, argued that technology has not in any way changed the general concept and ethics of privacy. This argument is based on the fact that social media is generally not public in nature but segmented. Those who share private and personal information on social media, therefore, only generally share it to their friends and loved ones used to invite friends and loved ones to their homes traditionally (Redmiles et al, 2015). Indeed, inviting friends, loved ones or colleagues to someone’s home does not amount to a breach of privacy but rather being social in nature. This arguments is based on the fact that social media generally has well set boundaries. Networks such as Facebook contain well established security setting where a user can regulate just who can see any content that has been posted online (Redmiles et al., 2015). Finally, with relation to Reality TV, it is mainly relegated to such a small section of the populace that it cannot be considered to represent the ethical position held by the populace.
Rebuttal
Every reasonable American must currently be aware that the term cyber security is an oxymoron (Gritzalis et al., 2014). Today, both houses of congress are busy investigating how some of the most privileged email accounts were hacked and the information used to try and manipulate the America 2016 presidential elections. It is also common knowledge that several years ago, some students in Malaysia were able to hack federal government systems including pentagon. Even without hacking, there is absolutely no privacy in social media since information posted by one person can be shared by other people, an issue that has developed the concept of a subject or item ‘going viral’. Therefore, people post their private information on social media while well aware that the same information can rapidly spread across the nation and even the globe in a matter of minutes (Gritzalis et al., 2014).
Further, people literally campaigned against private information being recorded and stored at all yet today many Americans have hoarded very private information in shared virtual storage units known as clouds (Gritzalis et al, 2014). This is a clear indication of change of ethical position. Finally, whereas Reality TV may only involve a few actors, an overwhelming majority of Americans watch, support and follow them. It is almost impossible to find an American of any age who has no idea who the Kardashians are. Had Americans retained their disenchantment for breaches of privacy, they would clearly shun Reality TV.
Two decades ago, Americans and indeed a majority of the democratic and developed world respected extreme privacy and abhorred any act or omissions that amounted to a breach of privacy. Taking a photograph of even the hedge of a house from the outside would have been considered a breach of security by most people. This created a major controversy as the populace castigated government agencies, more so the NSA for recording private information for security reasons. Today, everyone is posting their most intimate secrets online. From social media to Reality TV, nothing is private anymore. Those who do not participate in the sharing of private information online easily condone and support it. This is evidenced by the massive popularity of social media as well as Reality TV. It is unfathomable under the erstwhile ethical position on privacy for this kind of behavior to ensue, thrive or even be condoned. The only viable explanation, which forms the core of the argument in this essay is that ethics have changed. In exchange for the embrace of technology, people have given up their ethical position on privacy or in the very least exponentially watered it down.
References
Gritzalis, D., Kandias, M., Stavrou, V., & Mitrou, L. (2014). History of Information: The case of Privacy and Security in Social Media. In Proc. of the History of Information Conference (pp. 283-310)
Morgan, J. (2014, September 09). Privacy Is Completely and Utterly Dead, and We Killed It. Retrieved March 08, 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacobmorgan/2014/08/19/privacy-is-completely-and-utterly-dead-and-we-killed-it/#6eff2a1a31a7
Podgers, J., & Granat, R. (2015). Lawyers struggle to reconcile new technology with traditional ethics rules. ABA Journal
Redmiles, E., Malone, A., & Mazurek, M. L. (2015). How I Learned To Be Secure: Advice Sources and Personality Factors in Cybersecurity. In Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security Poster
