How the right of privacy was viewed in the 1890s and 2010s. (0)

Essay

How the right of privacy was viewed in the 1890s and 2010s.

Comparison between two articles by Warren & Brandeis and Julie Cohen

The two articles have questioned - What is privacy ? The simplest answer would be that the privacy is a human right and like in the first article by Warren & Brandeis, they quote Judge Cooly who sayd that, the privacy is the right to be let alone . This means , that a person is free to go and do what ever the person wants, no one has a right to harm him/her physically or mentally and vice versa. What ever the person decides to do, nobody else has the right to know about it without persons premission.
Julie Cohen starts her essay with a point that privacy has the image problem. In the world where there is no mobile platforms, data mining social meedia, in simple words the internet , its easyer to leave the person alone, but what can we do in the world where is very difficult to be incognito because your every move is statistics and sometimes lawfully, somebodys elses bussines ?.
Julie Cohen continues with describeing the new sight of the privacy. Compare to the year 1890 we are now facing new problems with privacy. The technology people use can store data. Data will contain information about transactions and behavioral data about people. For example, with a single click somebody can see what is been done in 24 hours, what places he or she visited, what internet pages liked.
She says that, society needs a situation where is no privacy because it needs to have people predictable. We have to bare in mind that predictableness is not all bad. People buy books , films or cosmetics online, watch a film on Netflix and maybe even type a text message in Facebook about how good or bad the movie was. Next time you log in, you will see recommendations for new films or cosmetics you would perhaps like to use. All this because of predictive algorithms working to find patterns in our previous behaviour and making suggestions about our future desires. Is this bad ? No, but in other hand the same algorithmic programs are shaping our behavior in cosmetics brand favor. Last time you visited this website , you liked this book, maybe you like to buy this soap now ?.
This is like someone is sitting in your room and making notes about your likes and dislikes. The things we search online, personal things, are stored in the „big data“ possibly forever and are available to researchers in the futuure. Google, „hungry“ for data, confessed that they know pretty much every WiFi password in the world. Of course they can not access to this data when ever they want, but they do store this sensible information,
In the end, maybe humans stop to be humans all together because we do not have to think anymore , just open Google and this will predict our wishes. I really like how Julie Cohen describes that
The "smartest guys in the room" no longer work for Enron , Lehman Brothers , or AIG, now they work for Google or Target or Acxiom, pursuing the holy grail of knowing customers better than they know themselves“.
This is pretty much the same with politics , government uses networks to identifying and targeting citizens to undrestand their views and expectations . For example if you notice that political message in Facebook and it seem to be talking to you personally, maybe this is no coincidence ?.
Mr Warren and Mr Brandies in their essey wrote about gossiping, nowdays we use gossiping to, but in more „ convenient “ ways . If I say „convenient“ I think all this political campaigns in our news, online or on TV, are full with constant stream of memes, links and rumors about political leaders and candidates, mixt with truth and lies . With those gimmicks they can focus our minds to choose „wizely“, to choose THEM in the next elections.
They also introduced that gossip is becoming a trade, this is no longer talked behind closed doors and resource of the idle but jornalism can make gossip an industry. Its in peoples nature to satisfy ther curiosity with gossip about other people sexual relations in the news columns of the daily papers. Journalists are hired to present stories that news consumers want, and if they don’t, their business may collapse. This has caused the necessity to protect men and women from the invasion to his or her privacy that can harm subject mentally and give distress, far greater than bodily injury. The solitude and privacy is more and more essential to the individual . They look into several case law about breach of trust , confidence and an implied contract.
For example in the famous case of Prince Albert v. Strange , Queen Victoria and Prince Albert made sketches as a hobby and showed them to friends and gave them as presents . Strange had accsess to some of the sketches and used them for own porposes. The court held that this action is prohibited and invasion to privacy.
Case of Yovatt v. Winyard, I J. & W. 394 (1820), where an injunction was granted against making any use of communicating certain recipies for veterinary medicine. The worker had access to his employer ’s recipies book and copied them. The personal writings and any productions of the intellect are private and is therefore protected.
In addition they say that the right to privacy does not prohibit any publication of matter witch is of public or general interest. They emphasized that the scope of this rule covers those persons hwo are not public figures and hwo are dragged into an undesirable publicity. Therefore there is a value in preventing publication not only in the right to publicate. But, the right to privacy does not apply when the court of justice is concerned ofcourse.
So in my opinion, the center of privacy issues is moved from greedy jornalists, mentioned in article from year 1890, to Google and other data collectors alike. If you want complete privacy, its easy , go to live in the Moon ! Our pirvacy is currently under attack, but we have to realise that privacy means trust in people or at least trust in our laws . Humans like to be comfortable, that everithing is only a click away but then we have to have a little faith . If I say faith I do not mean , disregard all privacy risks and do not protect your network sites . Be aware , that there are always people out there who will do anything to get someone’s private information, its important to realize that and act accordingly.