Computers & Information Privacy Concerns

Computers today are part of our lives in ways we often do not even notice, not only in the more obvious personal computers we use at home and the larger computers we may use in such places as banks and libraries, but also in computer technology that is found in home appliances such as television sets, coffee makers, microwave ovens, videocassette recorders, and hand calculators, not to mention toys and games. The arrival of the computer age was so rapid that we have not yet managed to cope with all the changes or with many of the consequences. More and more people are concerned about the issue of privacy in an age in which virtually everything we do is recorded somewhere in a computer system. The potential for abuse is great. Congress has considered the issue, the courts have had to deal with it many times and will certainly have to address it in many cases in the future, and the public at large is convinced that there is a potential for abuse even if such abuse has not yet surfaced. Because of this concern, there is a need for a comprehensive program of legislation to identify the problem, clarify the issues, and offer a legal framework as a solution.

Data surveillance through the computer has created a system that increasingly menaces individual privacy. Computers had been employed first to store scientific and numerical information, or information that was already in the public domain but that had to be collected into one computerized source. However, computers wer

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nment agencies and corporations: "In general, those who want information about individuals want it because they think it will allow them to make better decisions" (Johnson 88). The question then is why we would want to deny them this information, whether they are the government or a corporation. We first have to admit that privacy is important to us. James Rachels notes that there is no simple answer to this question and that there are a number of different interests which people have that may be harmed by invasions of privacy. Among these are the following: 1) Privacy may be needed to protect the individual's interests in a competitive situation. 2) Someone may want to keep an aspect of his or her life or behavior private simply because it would be embarrassing for others to know about it. 3) Medical records should be kept private for several reasons related to consequences about individual facts from such records becoming public knowledge. 4) When people apply for credit, large amounts of insurance, or some types of job, they are often investigated, which produces a file with all sorts of information that the individual would want to keep private. These are only examples, says Rachels, and do not say enough about why

Category: Science - C