Privacy

    The word privacy can have multiple meanings and/or definitions. In physical terms, privacy is “the right to be let alone, or freedom from interference of intrusion.” On the other hand, there is information privacy which is known as “the right to have some control over how your personal information is collected and used”. Nowadays there is a lot of talk about what is considered privacy and how we should regulate privacy. It is a common thought that true privacy is not something that exists. 

    After watching the Ted Talk by Juan Enriquez, I learned some pretty interesting things, especially with the idea of physical and electronic tattoos. Enriquez begins his speech by talking about the symbolism and meanings each tattoo holds to their individual. He exclaimed that the tattoos help tell the story of the individual through sharing visuals. Electronic tattoos can be very similar to physical tattoos in the sense that they both allow a story to be told through visualization. The main separation between the tattoo types is the purpose behind them. Physical tattoos have meaning behind them, meanwhile electronic tattoos have a main purpose of benefitting the user, for example monitoring heart activities, unlocking your phone, or possibly getting remote access to doors. Electronic tattoos can help users to possibly connect with friends and/or family through the internet. 

 

    Although they can have major benefits, electronic tattoos are yet another example of technology invading a user’s privacy. It has become common knowledge that technology is constantly taking notes on the user at hand, and as new technologies continue to improve more “privacy” is being violated. In Enriquez speech he speaks about the correlation between the poet, Jorge Luis Borges, and privacy related to technology. The main point of the story of Jorge Luis Borges is that threatening someone with immortality is essentially worse than threatening someone with death. I took this correlation as, if someone were to continue living through the age of technology increasingly invading privacy, they would suffer more than someone that does not live through that time. 

 

    Privacy is something majority of people would love to obtain, especially online. The most typical solution to privacy issues would be to refrain from any technology usage at all. Considering this would be an extremely hard thing for some people to do, another solution could be the implementation of online privacy settings. Certain technology providers should have clear privacy rules for all technology created through their company. These are only two ideas that could steer us in the right direction for complete privacy but in all honestly would be extremely hard to implement, taking in account the extensive amount of technology that is prevalent in everyday life.