Late at night, a seventeen-year-old boy is sitting in his room typing away on his personal computer. For hours, he sits there, staring at the monitor as words upon words come up as he's typing. His parents think he is doing all of his schoolwork and being the great son that they think he is. But in reality, he is networking into different companies credit reports and personal data. Then he is moving on to cracking into people's computers by sending out viruses and receiving all of their personal information that is stored on their computer.
Everyday, people all around the world are losing their privacy by means of technology and media. Although there are ways that all this can be prevented, more and more ways to steal all of this information from people and companies are being created at an extremely rapid rate.
"Privacy" can be defined in many different ways, depending on its context. The constant growth of information technology raise concerns about "information privacy." (Cosgrave) .
The need for information privacy is based on two propositions. First, that control over our personal information is important because mere awareness by others of certain types of information is potentially harmful. (Cosgrave).
Second, that personal information can be used improperly, unfairly or for purposes other than those intended by an individual. (Cosgrave).
David Cosgrave, a solicitor involved in establishing the Internet Association's Code of Conduct, says that the erosion of information privacy by technology occurs in three ways. One of these three ways is greater access to information. This is not simply because previously confidential information is now public, but rather because technology is changing what "public" means. Computer networks ensure that "public access" can mean the entire on-line world. (Cosgrave).
Another is the collection of information. The power of electronic databases to collate and share otherwise meaningless information allows an extensive profile of an individual to be created.
