...The right to privacy for online Internet activity is a serious issue in the world today. Some internet users wish to hide their identities while participating in discussions of sensitive topics. Others fulfill fantasies and harmlessly role play under the cover of a false identity in chat rooms, but there are the eternal "bad apples," and on the Internet, they are the people who use anonymous servers as more than a way to avoid responsibility for controversial remarks. Cases of harassment and abuse have become more and more frequent because there are ways to avoid people knowing your true identity. There are also problems with frauds and con artists who elude law enforcement authorities through anonymous mailings and postings. Nowhere in the United States Constitution does the word “privacy” exist. Rather, the Supreme Court has decided that “privacy” is to be protected by the amendments. It is the essence of the Bill of Rights and so it is a guaranteed right. The Invasion of Privacy is covered under the 4th Amendment in the Bill of Rights. However without a reasonable expectation of privacy, there is no privacy right to protect. Files stored on disk or tape in the home is protected, but the rule becomes less clear when applied to files stored on an Internet access provider's server. Web servers, on the other hand, may be protected by federal law. Some argue that consent of the access provider, however, is all that is required for law enforcement authorities to search and seize...
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...Privacy Rights December 14, 2012 There is a believed right, not stated in the constitution that is cherished by Americans as much as their freedom of speech or their right to bear arms. It is privacy. A belief that no one may come and search your home without cause, or that personal information about you and your family will be protected and not shown to others. Yet, as much as we enjoy these rights, they are slowly slipping away as laws are passed to fight terrorism. Privacy was never guaranteed in the constitution. The closest thing to protecting our privacy was the 4th amendment. The amendment protected people from unwarranted search and seizure, but only from the government, not from individuals. Federal privacy laws have only dealt with the actions of the federal government and its agencies. The burden of personal privacy laws have fallen to the states. After the attacks of 9/11, the federal government took unprecedented steps to prevent more attacks. One of these steps taken was wiretapping U.S. citizens. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez (2006) claimed “We cannot defend the nation without such information”. However, The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 was passed because of the governments wiretapping of dissidents in the 60’s and early 70’s. The act setup a panel of judges to review requests for domestic surveillance, in cases of national security, these requests could be “fast tracked” to be authorized quickly. It also allowed government...
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...Legal systems based off of civil, common, and religious law have been established throughout the world since the beginning of mankind. Although these systems commonly tie into one another, each policy has been shaped by its country’s unique history and their individual variations. Statutes in many sorts are provided by whom ever deems power within a particular nation. As straight-forward as this may seem, a sense of moral and reason tend to influence the law where a specific statute may not exist. If an individual is convicted of a crime, of which is not stated in a state or nation’s penal code, how is it possible to be convicted at all? If an individual proceeds to use a defense in a lawful contention such as the “right to privacy,” which is not explicitly written in the Constitution, is it a valid defense at all? I believe these can be answered, with the consideration of and through, moral and reason. Using the United States as an example, the law has been divided between the common law of the nation and its military legal system. There is a need to separate these systems solely because the responsibilities and duties of a civilian and a servicemen are simply incompatible. As we know The Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. Therefore, not only does each individual state govern with The Constitution at hand, but they also provide a separate penal code unique to its own. Laws prohibiting a personal liberty such as abortion (where arguments have been...
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...Employee Privacy Rights in the Workplace Employee Privacy Rights in the Workplace Employees must have the right to phone security, application confidentiality, the right to no sexual harassment, and the right to not have any personal questions asked that do not pertain to work. Employee privacy laws are limited, which makes it easy for employers to invade the privacy of its employees. Some things are personal and should remain that way. In today’s working environment, employers need to reevaluate their techniques, approach this ongoing situation, and find alternative solutions to this problem. There are limits to everything in life, and there needs to be limits set on employee privacy laws. Employee privacy laws are limited; they are not set up to protect employees. Someone needs to do something to protect employee privacy. Many Americans accuse their employers of violating their privacy. Employers are becoming more vicious on how they screen new candidates as well as their current employees. Normally employers will conduct background checks, random drug testing, and maybe even a credit check. The question that needs addressing here is “How much are we willing to give up satisfying our employers”? Employees need to become more aware of this situation. Employers have the upper hand in this situation. Everyday they find a new way to invade their employees’ privacy. In today’s world of ever-changing technology, the court and legislature systems...
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...Running head: BUSINESS WRITING PORTFOLIO Business Writing Portfolio COM/285/Introduction to Business Communication September 28, 2011 Business Writing Portfolio The public relations manager will present information regarding changes in a retail store operations to three sets of stakeholders of a retail clothing chain. The stakeholders are store managers, employees, retail customers, and the public. The adjustments regarding employees working fewer days a week in an effort to combat rising gas prices as well as saving money on store operations are as follows; First, Sonny, the public relations manager will outline several steps to follow when drafting business communications. While constructing this message, Sonny will determine the characteristics of her audience as well as considering the appropriate communication type and style for each audience. The next step is to write three messages by selecting one message format for each audience, explaining the changes in the retail store operations.The final step is to write a reflection on the writing. Business Writing Steps [pic] Research, communication, and evaluation are three steps that should be followed when drafting business communications. The first step is to identify the audience by performing research on the given audience that needs to be communicated with. The four audience characteristics that are important to identify when drafting business communication are English-language barriers, diversity, education...
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...information have forever changed. Employers are playing constant “catch up” with new technologies that are utilized on a broad scale long before policies are created to manage their impacts. Privacy issues often arise in connection with employer efforts to locate, hire and evaluate the most qualified and reliable employees. Improvements in technology, such as the rapid rise of the use of electronic mail and the increasing use of surveillance cameras, often force otherwise reluctant employers to readdress the balance between employees' privacy concerns and perceived business needs. In fact, nearly 67% of all companies currently use some type of surveillance in the workplace. According to a recent poll, “. . . over 66% percent of those surveyed had used the Internet from work in the past 24 hours.” (M.Lee Smith Publishers, Hospitality Workforce Trends, January 2000) In addition, when issues in his or her personal life impact an employee’s work, the employer must make judgments as to the appropriate level of involvement. Lastly, as traffic on the “information superhighway” continues to explode a number of substantive questions about the use and abuse of these information networks arises. What are the ramifications for employees’ right to privacy in the workplace? Does an employer have the right to search an employee’s computer files or review the employee’s electronic mail (“E-mail”)? What are the advantages and disadvantages of using surveillance at the workplace? As you...
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...The technologies described are an unethical violation of the privacy rights of the individuals subjected to them. Many customers are protesting the data collection as an invasion of privacy. In the age of smartphones, it’s become easier for stores to monitor the customers who give them business. Unless some form of regulation is established, this type of monitoring will continue to become a part of reality. Many customers don’t trust stores with their personal information after the Target credit card data was hacked. In the New York Times article, “Attention Shoppers: Store is Tracking Your Cell” many customers say what stores our doing is way over the line (Clifford). Robert Plant, a computer information systems professor at the University...
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...Employee Privacy Rights in the Workplace Vicki Puckett COM 120 Allyson Wells October 8, 2006 Do you think that your employee rights entitle you to workplace privacy? Well, think again. The fact is that most employers monitor their employee in one way or another. In the workplace, many employers are violating the privacy rights of their employees by surveillance, genetic testing, and sexual orientation. According to some workplace privacy studies, there is a good chance that your employer is monitoring your internet activities, including the Web pages you read, and messages you read and post in forums, blogs, and chat rooms. Your employer could also be spying on you in several other ways as well. Some may include recording your phone conversations, videotaping your every move within the company, and tracking your location with the company cell phone. Such monitoring is almost entirely unregulated. Therefore, unless company policy specifically states otherwise, your employer may listen, watch and record most of your workplace communications. The rapid growth of workplace monitoring and surveillance technology has far out paced the development of laws that protect worker privacy interests. Modern technology has provided employers with more advanced and effective means of monitoring their employees. As a result, electronic monitoring of employees in the workplace has become far more prevalent in recent years...
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...CCTV cameras (Daily Mail, 2016). In support of mass surveillance, the ‘if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear’ argument is used commonly against privacy advocates. However, there are those that have discredited this claim and argue against it. In this essay, arguments will be made to explain why I disagree with the statement ‘if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear from surveillance’. This will be done by exploring the right to privacy, the problem with not knowing...
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...Is There a Right to Privacy in Social Networking? ISSUE: Should social networking sites allow outside parties to have access to user information? Although it is free for users to participate on social networking sites (to a certain extent), companies like Facebook are businesses; they must make money to stay in operation. One way in which Facebook has begun to collect revenues is by allowing marketers to post advertisements on its site. Yet with the growing competition in social networking, Facebook must take new steps to retain its competitive edge. One possible way is by establishing the standard for online identity. In August 2009, Facebook hired David Recordon, an expert in online identification. Recordon intends to promote open and transparent standards for web identity to Facebook. In other words, the company hopes to make it easier to identify its users. Although several social networking sites have been criticized over this issue, the site that has garnered the most criticism is Facebook. Facebook has already implemented changes to promote more open identification. For example, users can no longer hide their name, gender, profile picture, or hometown from other users. Facebook also gives access to this same information to its partners of Facebook Connect, a program that lets users log onto their Facebook profiles from thousands of websites. In December 2009, Yahoo! and Facebook formed a partnership that permits Facebook users to identify themselves on Yahoo...
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...for Disease Control and Prevention, last year it was recorded that approximately one million people were currently living with Human immunodeficiency virus, or better known as HIV. This fast growing epidemic infects another unknowing person every nine minutes. With so many people being infected with HIV something must be done. However, what public knowledge can be used to spread information about this disease? Also, what rights are there for people currently living with this disease? The Office of Civil Rights is an agency that focuses on protecting the civil rights of Americans. This organization helps protect against discrimination in areas such as treatment centers, government-ran agencies, and day care centers. “OCR’s enforcement efforts protect the civil rights and health information privacy rights of people living with HIV, resulting in increased access to quality health care and reduced HIV-related discrimination, stigma and disparities” (HHS, 2011). People living with HIV have the same rights to privacy as any other patient. They also have the right to expect that all records and communications are kept confidential. These individuals can be protected because by law professionals must keep their information and treatment private. In order to protect the community from HIV, spreading knowledge and awareness is important. Free or low-cost testing should be provided for all in order to gain awareness of infection. People that do not have HIV need to understand how to...
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...The concept of an individuals privacy and it’s juxtaposition with freedom of press has been an area of concern for the European Court of Human Rights for many years, as such many legislative proceedings within the United Kingdom have followed precedent set out in those cases. Richard Peppiat, former journalist for the Daily Star Newspaper during an interview once quoted, “When you are immersed in that world you don’t see people as people. You see them as targets who can provide information or quotes. You lose any moral or ethical considerations. In your desperation to get a story you forget you are dealing with individuals, family life, privacy.”.(Carrick, D. 2012) The object of this essay is to evaluate the significance of the issue of balance between an individual supposed right to Privacy and the collective right given to Freedom of Expression within the Print industry. Specific reference will be made to adjudications made by the European Court of Human rights and how this has set out guidelines regarding the aforementioned. Furthermore, these cases will be analysed and compared to notable United Kingdom court cases to allow further insight into this particular problem facing the Media industry. The National Union of Journalists set out a code of conduct, outlining the main principles of journalistic ethics, something that has been held as industry guidelines since it’s creation in 1936. Part of that code of ethics states, “A journalist does nothing to intrude...
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...data that was leaked was regarding the way the United States Government was gathering browsing habits and personal data of citizens. Basically, their ability to monitor the average citizen without their knowledge. Snowden’s feeling was that our privacies and liberties did not need to be crumpled upon to secure the nation. As a result, this was weakening our nation and causing mistrust by the government instead of securing it. The very popular debate was born, people’s right to data privacy versus the necessity for appropriate intelligence gathering. In this paper...
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...media plays too great part in the political process also, especially when it is time to elect a new president or a prime minister. It opens curtains on every private peculiarity about the candidate: with whom he meets and what he eats. Sometimes the information is becoming ridiculous. Do we need such a close look to someone’s private life? Most of the information is just riveting but not useful. But peeping Tom journalism becomes more and more demanded. Famous people deserve privacy and respect. First of all, we should admire what they do, not who they are. Of course we are interested to know what they do, whom they meet and what they eat around the clock but we should not invade their family or private life through the media. Secondly, the children and family of famous people should not be affected. Some stars have to hire security for their children or spouses because of media attention. Scrutiny may be the price celebs pay for fame. There are several cases in the history when people lost the privacy and got anguish being hounded by media. For example, Richard Jewell a security guard in Olympic Park in the US was at first hailed as a hero for discovering the bomb and helping to clear people from the area. Then news accounts in the Atlanta Journal named him as a suspect. And his life totally changed. Because he was convicted in the court of public opinion. He couldn’t find a job and meet his friends, he was under scrutiny around the clock being a prisoner in his home. Although...
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...There is an argument whether FERPA, the Family Educational Rights, and Privacy Act, which deprive all rights of parents when their children reach 18 years old or attend a postsecondary institution is good or not. I agree with the author, Michele Willins who opposes to FERPA. First of all, it is dangerous. If their children have sick, both mentally and physically, parents have no rights to know their situation. It may make the condition worse, because of lack of consideration. The same for the attendance of classes. If parents do not know whether their children are in school or not and a disaster happen, they can not check their children’s safety. School can not have responsibility for this situation. Although it is hard to manage the information...
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