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What is privacy?

The word ‘privacy’ means different things to different people. Your idea of privacy is likely to be different from the ideas of your family and friends.

The boundaries and content of what is considered private differ among cultures and individuals, but share basic common themes.

Privacy can simply be defined as the right to be left alone. Privacy is the right of people to make personal decisions regarding their own intimate matters, it is the right of people to lead their lives in a manner that is reasonably secluded from public scrutiny, and it is the right of people to be free from such things as unwarranted drug testing, electronic surveillance, Internet tracking or tracing.

What is information privacy?

Information privacy, or data privacy is the ability of an individual or group to stop information about themselves from becoming known to people other than those they choose to give the information to. Privacy is sometimes related to anonymity, the wish to remain unnoticed or unidentified in the public realm.

What is Internet Privacy?

Internet privacy is the privacy and security level of personal data published via the Internet.
Internet privacy is a broad term referring to the various concerns, technologies, and strategies for protecting information, communications, and choices that are meant to be private. It’s the ability to control what information you reveal about yourself and who can access that information.

On the internet you almost always give away a lot of information about yourself: Unencrypted e-mails can be read by the administrators of the e-mail server, if the connection is not encrypted, and also the internet service provider and other parties sniffing the traffic of that connection are able to know the contents. Furthermore, the same applies to any kind of traffic generated on the internet (web browsing, instant messaging, etc)

The Internet threatens privacy in a number of ways, partly because it is possible to record everything that you do on line (partly through IP addresses). The government of United States and other countries regularly monitor electronic communication as do commercial companies such as Microsoft, and Google. Microsoft monitors a great deal of the world’s email traffic (through its Hotmail system) and Google, particularly through its searches (which it uses in its advertising strategies), builds up a detailed profile of your search terms over many years. There is also an increasing trend for companies to monitor their staff’s email and web searching habits as well as monitor their staff through cameras and other such devices.

The ability to control what information one reveals about oneself over the Internet, and who can access that information, has become a growing concern. In order not to give away too much personal information, e-mails should be encrypted and browsing of webpages as well as other online activities should be done traceless via anonymizers.

Why is Privacy Important?

Privacy protects us from abuses by those in power, even if we’re doing nothing wrong. We do nothing wrong when we make love or go to the bathroom. We are not deliberately hiding anything when we seek out private places for reflection or conversation. We keep private journals and write letters.

Privacy is an inherent human right, and a requirement for maintaining the human condition with dignity and respect.

Without Privacy

Without privacy life would be hell. It would mean that you would be highly vulnerable to the control of others, you would lose your freedom which may lead to inhibition and tentativeness and you may be less spontaneous and you would be more likely to be manipulated.