What is privacy? Privacy is the ability to have control over your own personal information; it is also the right to control how it is used. When it comes to online privacy, one has the ability to block internet browser history and your internet service provider from tracking your browser history by using a VPN connection. Facebook for instance has had a number of claims from users being invaded of their privacy but users have yet to get away from it because it seems so hard for them to do but their employees have better privacy and stronger security on their accounts, which doesn’t fully make sense in a way. I’m guessing since more and more people are willing to give up their privacy to discuss with others then why should Facebook care. Being aware of what is posted is the only logical thing to do besides not sharing everything with everyone. By limiting ones’ exposure, one can keep their lives more private.
There are plenty of government and corporate organizations who have access to billions of data of people such as utility companies and other companies who require personal information from users. It is not seen as a major privacy issue but rather a public security problem due to the lack of privacy and knowing everyone’s whereabouts. Using saving cards that belong to certain stores such as Harris Teeter, Auto Zone and other stores only allows one to keep up with your address, phones number as well as what you purchase. Although, they allow for savings to occur they also allow for information gathering. Another situation, the FBI was able to invade privacy back in 1990 before the rules changed by simulating phone towers to gather information without obtaining permission from the phone company before a new law came into place about that privacy concern, that concern was fixed and it is required of the FBI to get a warrant and issue it to the phone companies in order to gather that type of information. Since then many people have changed how they use phones due to the way they are being monitored by the government. In general, technology is getting bigger and bigger, it is causing major privacy concerns now and in the future. Privacy is a major concern but so is security.
What is security? Security is how your information is being protected, from your data to personal details. When it comes to a VPN connection, security helps protect you from other people trying to access your data. As long as the right configurations are in place, one is better protected with the VPN connection than using their internet service provider. In today’s world, public security is seen as being more important than personal privacy (Evans, 2018). But why? There are many countries that don’t see privacy as being a major issue but companies like Amazon (AWS Department) see where it can be risky so, they choose not to deal with them due to the leaders of that country causing known vulnerability issues to users and their information. Many technology companies decided to add encryption to their products and services after the Edward Snowden exposure occurred. Once, companies heard about the Snowden event they decided to make their products and services more complex to reduce their chance of an attack. Although encryption is known to make it harder for the police to deal with, it is known to complicate hackers and foreign spies. By complicating hackers and foreign spies one is able to save time and reduce their overall security risk with their products being encrypted.
Both privacy and security are important and good to have since they both can impact the safety of the information and products being used. One could choose between privacy and security but why would they when they are both beneficial and can go hand and hand. Adding one to the other only makes them stronger together. Neither privacy nor security are seen as a personal luxury to have anymore because the information is too massive and both issues are everywhere regardless of who you are and how much money you have. Since everyone is being targeted from children to the elderly something needs to be done about it. More companies also need to ensure the privacy and security of their consumers are better protected, in order to avoid being fined and/or breached. The less secure the information is the higher the chances for a breach to occur, which can lead to major financial loss. Although many companies see being able to gather personal information as an advantage for advertising, they should also see it as a disadvantage because they now have personal information they have to protect. One example would be using clip coupons in the paper or mailing the advertisement rather than using a store tag to retrieve the coupons like back in the day.
In general, more and more information is being exposed to various companies and its getting to be too much to maintain but that also means that companies need to find better ways of maintaining ones privacy and securing their own products and services to prevent leaks from occurring.
References:
Evans, J. (2018, May 6). Personal Privacy vs. Public Security. Techcrunch.com. Retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/06/personal-privacy-vs-public-security-fight/
Strohm, C. (2017). Privacy vs. Security. Blooomberg.com. Retrieved from https://www.bloomberg.com/quicktake/privacy-vs-security
Symanovich, S (n.d.). Privacy vs. Security: What’s the Difference?. Norton.com Retrieved from https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-privacy-privacy-vs-security-whats-the-difference.html
Weinstein, D. (2019, October 6). Privacy vs. Security: Is it a Dilemma?. https://www.wsj.com/articles/privacy-vs-security-its-a-false-dilemma-11570389477
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