How can it be a right to have privacy yet live with limits to that privacy? Is that truly a right? I would think it is more of a Guideline to Privacy. Yes ladies and gentlemen this is a tricky one made even more complicated by the numerous stories of Governmental misuse of laws "re-engineered" to allow wire-tapping in the name of terrorism.
Safeguard our Right to Privacy - The internet is truly the information superhighway. At the same time, a large portion of that information is information about you, your neighbors and your family. Every day we are under attack from spammers, hackers, viruses and criminals trying to trick us into voluntarily providing our personal information to some cause or overthrown leader of a West African nation so that they can recover their Family's lost millions, of which you will receive a handsome percentage of. DUH!
Then it gets complicated. Rumors of Corporate Espionage come into play. Companies trying to obtain employee data via cold-calls to unsuspecting and un-informed employees. Stolen electronic devices and laptops containing sensitive corporate information as well as employee information.
Finally it gets down right scary. Governmental information of U.S. Citizens stored in who knows what dungeon within the walls of the C.I.A., FBI or NSA all in the name of National Security. Social Security Numbers lost on laptops left behind in public locations or stolen outright. Yes, we are at war, but not a conventional one.
This is a war of electronic deception that moves at the speed of light. in some cases, set off by the stupidity of the human condition. Data and Information are what they are. There is no code that decides to steal data or lose a laptop. This is all done within the magic realm of the human mind. The one variable that is the most difficult to control, manage or stop.
The good news is, you can educate, inform and put in place serious penalties for those who commit crime or abuse personal information or data. You can even continue to research and implement stronger encryption and algorithms to slow down cyber crime. But you will never stop it. That is the other side of the human condition ingenuity.
We can all sit around and hope someone else comes up with a better mouse-trap, we can even recoil into a face-less existence on-line. As we continue to leverage technology to streamline our daily lives however, pulling away from the net may very well be the equivalent of saving your life's savings within the coils of your mattress at home.
The world is marching unabated into a future that will become more increasingly integrated with the on-line world driven by business and other critical industries we have to deal with on a daily basis. It is nice to see Political figures making efforts to understand and address this, but once again, it is our own responsibility as citizens to understand technology and take steps to protect our own data. In most cases this involves a tad bit more common sense than we have seen in the past; passwords people, passwords!
This is not an Election issue, this is a life issue we all should be very much on top of you have to keep yourself informed, educated and engaged with your government representatives, making sure they do what it is that is in all of our best interest. But you already knew that, didn't you?
