As the internet flourishes amongst the masses, one of the main trials and concerns that face not only everyday people, but also businesses, organizations, and an overall social atmosphere. Privacy and security have been, and will continue to be a hot-button issue as the internet continues to evolve. “It involves the exercise of control over the type or amount of information that persons reveal about themselves on the Internet and who may access such information.” (Wikipedia) A mainstay on the list is of course identity theft, which is an unfortunate state where a person assumes (usually digitally) the identity of another person in order to gain access to certain resources such as money (or some other tangible or intangible item).
Another interesting take on internet privacy can be interpreted as an attack of a different kind, not from hackers or those wishing to unlawfully use resources that don’t belong to them, but from those supposedly looking out for the people; the government. “Free speech is only possible if anonymity is possible. Internet privacy means internet anonymity or "pseudonymity." But this would be natural, were it not for government intervention.” (www.lewrockwell.com) In different circles, freedom is a far more important commodity than even personal safety. Allowing government agencies or the government itself to read any email they want, or bypass personal security in the interests of “keeping everyone safe,” can be interpreted in itself as a breach of personal freedom and the right to privacy.
Any way that you look at the issue it’s simple. People have the right to both privacy in keeping their own information private and secure, as well as security in being safe from harm from those who would wish it upon them. There are of course legal considerations that must be taken into account in an argument such as this, but that is where we walk a fine line.
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