Introduction

This blog is dedicated to all the people that had their privacy violated through various kinds of media. There are not many things that we can do about it, because our privacy is being violated more and more every single day. This is also because the world of technology brings us new technologies, which make it easier to violate someone else’s privacy. In this blog you are going to find how our privacy is being violated through different media, some videos of people that might be very angry in the future, because they were exposed to the world in a way they did not imagine and some new technology gadgets that decrease our privacy when being used. Also there are going to be some ideas that might be implemented in order to gain more privacy in media, for those who are not willing to be exposed, and are willing to fight the technology and the world of media.

2010/05/17

Is There Any Privacy in Media?

The answer to this question is simple, there is not. The mass media does not know what privacy is. For example consider the situation, that someone in front of you just fell in to the dog's poo, and the person beside you had it all filmed on his iPhone (I am an Apple addict, so most of the examples would be considering Apple). Immediately after filming it, he can stream it on YouTube and millions of people can watch this unfortunate person fell into dog's poo and then discuss him. This person is most likely going to become the joke target of his friends, which might lead him to committing suicide, which happened already and not once. With a single small device you are able to kill a person mentally in only a seconds, by distributing this video to various media. Internet, Television and press are the most privacy decreasing medias of all. As far as the Internet goes, you are able to get information about anything, also there are information that are included in TV and Press, so basically Internet has it all. But this topic is not that much about private information, because people willingly put their information on their Internet capable devices, basically they have choice whether they are going to put them or not and of course in todays society people know that there are certain crimes done through Internet, so they are willingly exposing themselves to these crimes, just waiting for someone to find them and get their name, address, bank accounts, private pictures, sex tapes, and many other stuff that one finds valuable and all this is done through Internet by hacking to your phone. This is also the case of social networks, where people want to share their information with their friends, but actually because the system is not bullet-proof, your personal information can be seen by people that are not your friends. My point is that it is more about the public humiliation, the essence of being exposed to public via media, without knowing that you have been photographed or recorded previously. Of course one can argue that when there are victims of certain crimes and there faces are exposed it more about the information than the public humiliation, because these people already are victims of a crime so people tend to feel sorry about them, therefore the person would not be humiliated because everyone laughs at him, but, on the other hand this person might get overwhelmed by the sudden sympathy around him and caused by other people, this person also might become a victim again when the followers of the attacker would seek revenge. So we can conclude that both imaging someone in a humiliating way and as a victim, without them wanting to will lead to decrease in their privacy and might have various consequences, as one old saying says: "There are always two ends of a story, one bad and one happy." It is true that media exposure can bring you your five minutes of fame, but then be aware of papparazzi (see my other postings). Today we live in the world of never-ending technology development so, however the technology, especially the one that is done for communication is not bullet-proof and there are bugs that should be destroyed so one's privacy would not be compromised.

6 komentářů:

  1. I agree with your statement, but I believe that the problem lies in where we can stop this media to interfere in someone's personal life. It has become so popular these days that it has become so common to post videos and many other documents of a person that you might not even know. The fact that anyone at anytime could be in the internet and humiliated publicly is frightening.

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  2. The problem is that with great freedom, you may lose privacy, but the other extreme is Internet censorship. What do you think is more dangerous?

    It is terrible that nowadays, students can record the teacher on their cell phone and instantly put it on Youtube with harsh and hummiliating comments, which can lead even to students harassing their professors. But The prospect of any big organization restricting people from using certain Internet applications and sites is equally frightening. What do you think?

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  3. This subject is definitely worth of attention, and I got sure in this especially a few days ago when on YouTube in a Georgian section I found a huge lists of "humorous" posts presenting funny conversations of people while their phone calls, which, of course, should normally be and stay PRIVATE! Which, logically, means that all phone calls are listened and even worse - presented to entire population, and not only in your country but around the world too. This is everything but not privacy. Very sad.

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  4. There are certain etichs of privacy and respect that journalists and editors must obey. The problem set by you is inevitably very active, however would it be better if it was unable to record or publish private information? somehow it does prevent people from some negative actions and makes them bevahe more attentively. In fear that media might find out, politicians might not accept bribes etc... because it will harm their career. So in some cases it might be even profitable

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  5. You all are right. However I believe that this problem is in the world just because of the interests of society, they are interested in "fun" even though they humiliate others on the behalf of it. As Mariam said it can be profitable, but isn't blackmailing or extortion illegal? To answer your rhetorical question Johnak I would say that I cannot imagine a world with Internet censorship. It is all about the people and if they start behaving in a way that they won't harm anyone.

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  6. Disadvantages of the media are not significant; mostly they are because of low level of the ethics among people. People who do something illegal must know and remember that they will be punished anyway. People who care about virtual “private life” should be more focus on real “private life” and spend less time in the internet.

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