QotW6: Stop Peeping

First of all, we need to know what privacy means. Many individuals out there might have a different idea of what privacy is about. To me, privacy is about not intruding into the personal affairs of another and only reading materials, copying materials and taking personal photos of the other when permission is granted. For example, no one likes people to read the messages stored in their handphones. “Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to keep their lives and personal affairs out of possible view, or to control the flow of information about themselves.” (Privacy, 2007)

Without having this topic for assignment, I would not think that many of us would think about the term, privacy. “When you have it, you don’t notice it. Only when it’s gone do you wish you’d done more to protect it.” (Sullivan, 2004) Due to the technology advancement, our views on privacy have changed, “Increasingly obtained not by shared experiences or fixed social status but by self-revelation.” (Rosen, 2004)

Since most of us are almost familiar about blogging, I shall use that to bring in privacy with relation to my first blog entry, ‘About Me’. As we can see, I did not mention specific details about myself. Examples would be my birth date, which part of Singapore I stay in and most importantly, a front photo of me. The picture I chose for my blog is just my side view, almost covered up by a mug. Now, why did I do that? Reason being, I feel vulnerable if someone I do not know of actually knows my name and personal information. They might know my likes and dislikes when I could even possibly not know their name. I would rather disclose such information only to the people I know and see if it is worth mentioning. Other than that, I would prefer an equal share of information about each other than me not knowing anything about the other while the other knows something about me.

People should ask when they want to find out a particular information about the other, rather than sort to means like peeking into the belongings of that person. Of course the extent of privacy all depends on an individual. Some may love to disclose, share more daily happenings about themselves on a blog, while others like me would choose to keep a low profile. I find it more interesting to get to know more about the other person through face-to-face conversation instead of using means of spying, ‘detective’ style approach.

Also, the term privacy makes me think of paparazzi. Like how they intrude into the lives of celebrities even of they were seen drinking coffee at Starbucks. We may ask when to draw the line of privacy. This depends on the comfort zone of the individual. Only you can decide what to do about the prevention of the invasion of privacy.


REFERENCES

Privacy (7th March, 2007). In Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 10th March, 2007 from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Privacy&oldid=113354124

Rosen, J. (19th July, 2004). "The Naked Crowd". Retrieved on 10th March, 2007 from http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/0000000CA5FF.htm

Sullivan, B. (17th October, 2006). "Privacy Lost: Does Anyone Care?". Retrieved on 10th March, 2007 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15221095/print/1/displaymode/1098/