Ed-op: Why We Care About Privacy By Anna North
Noah Dyer, a professor at Tempe’s University of Advancing Technology ,mentions that we have privacy too much. He wanted to live without privacy, so that he paid a camera crew to record his life all the time for a year. He argues a privacy-free society and strong points of it. (Why We Care About Privacy)
Dyer emphasizes that privacy-free improves political environment as well as our behavior; “If we could see what every member of Congress was doing every single day, they might act more ethically” and “All of their citizens are going to be able to act in their own best interest based on totally accurate information.” No privacy equals perfect information to anyone.
As we talk about surveillance from Facebook in discussion class, Facebook traces IP address and has information of users, and sends advertising which the users are interested in whether they want or not. In “Why We Care About Privacy,” Nathalia Holt, a Facebook user, mentions that it helps users to compare products to find the best one from lots of products; the users can save time.
Anna North, the writer of “Why We Care About Privacy,” advocates privacy free and surveillance with argument of Dyer and Holt. However, I do not agree with her opinion.
No privacy takes surveillance for granted and prevails it in our society. Privacy is linked with respect of individuals. For example, I want to keep a secret, but do I have to open it in public? It is disrespectful because it overlooks my stance. My secret may not match with others’ taste, so I want not to tell anyone in order to avoid a conflict. In this case, I better keep the secret than letting them know it
Besides, government or corporation manipulates and controls over us. Through surveillance, if they know about us, they could have more power over us. For example, Facebook knows about me such as what I am recently interested in, so Facebook may influence my decisions and shape my behavior as consistently showing lots of advertising. Also, as it shows not only information I am interested in but also information related to my interest, I waste time by searching unnecessary information.