Personal Privacy in the Information Age

Professor Kiehn English 302 3 October 2013 Personal Privacy in the Information Age Some of the most contentious and recurrent argumentative dialogues regarding civil liberties stem from what seems at face value, like a relatively elementary idea the notion of personal privacy. This debate could never be more relevant than in present day society, where globalization and advanced communications technologies have synergized to form a ubiquitous digital library of shared information. The specific example of the delicate balance between personal privacy and national security here in the United States has only further convoluted the issue the debate of whether and to what caliber citizens have privacy rights is hotly contested. As technology advances and more individuals become inevitably interconnected, the actual denotation of the term privacy becomes increasingly flexible and subject to debate. Although the prospect of privacy as an intrinsic and inalienable right is universally desirable, existing in modern society necessitates a partial surrender of privacy rights due to their inherent causal correlation with globalization and existence in a digital age. To examine the construct of modern privacy rights, one must look at redefining the term with modern applications. Merriam-Webster defines the term as the state of being free from intrusion or disturbance in ones life or affairs. In todays technologically dominated society, privacy could more effectively be defined as simply as, the amount of personal information one necessitates keeping inaccessible to certain entities, government or otherwise. In a globalized, digitized world, an integral element to the definition of privacy personal information has become a very desirable commodity for governmental and business purposes alike. Governments concerned about preventing external threats and terrorism are responding to electors increasingly nervous about their security, with dire consequences for this fundamental

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