The Right to Privacy in the Information Age Essay -- Exploratory Essay

In a day in the purport of Joe, an ordinary Ameri stinkpot, he drives to the office, owrks at a com countersinker, browses in a take a crap at lunch time, then picks up some milk and a video on the way home, where a pile of junk get off and bills await him. At every stop alo ng the way, his doings can be watched, monitored, tabulated, and sold. On this typical day, Joe, our ordinary American, does not realize how technology has changed his private life. Joes driving route may be tracked by a sophisticated traffic system. At work, his employer can listen in to his business conversations on the telephone, and tap into his computer, e-mail, or voice-mail. At the shopping center, the closed book closed-circuit camera may seek him out personally. The shop is allowed to put peepho les in the fitting rooms. Some have hidden microphones, too. If he uses his trust card, not only does the card company keep tabs on when, where, and what he buys, it may sell that data to othe r marketers. A purchase of out- doorway furniture means catalog s selling barbecue grills, mowing machines, or lawn cum are likely to be piled as junk mail in his mail box. Quickly he sits down at his desk and fills out the Readers corroborate Sweepstakes Entry form, hoping that this time Ed McMahon will arrive at his door with the big check, so he eagerly supplies personal information which, inadvertently to him, will be sold to other marketers and distributed to databases throughout the world. Joe is unaware of others who, on this typical day in the electronic age, ha ve peered into his private life. engineering science plays a significant part in todays society. As technology advances, newborn controversies arise, many involving privacy rights. Medical, workplace, and consumer pri... ...per, Michael. With Success of Cameras, Concerns over covert. New York Times 5 Feb. 1997 B4. Dowd, Ann Reilly. Protect Your Privacy. Money Aug. 1997 107-108, 112. Everett-Green, Robert. Cyberspace. 1996 cyclopaedia Britannica Book of the Year. 1996. Goode, Stephen. Are Privacy Rights appease Inalienable? Insight Magazine on the News 19 Aug. 1996 18-19. Houlder, Vanessa. The favor and Curse of E-mail. World Press Review June 1997 33-34. Long, Robert Emmet. Rights to Privacy. New York H.W. Wilson Co., 1997. Medical Privacy is Under Attack. http//www.ACLU.org 26 Oct. 1997. Workplace in America. http//www.ACLU.org 26 Oct. 1997. We Know Youre recital This. Economist 10 Feb. 1996 28. William Faulkner On Privacy. The Annals of America Chicago Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 1968.