Reading Report #5

“The End of Privacy?”

by: Daniel J. Solove

In “The End of Privacy?”, Daniel J. Solove argues that all aspects of an individual’s private life can be accessed by the click of a finger on the Internet. Social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, and websites that stream video footage, such as YouTube, have broken through the barrier between what is public and private. With basic computer knowledge, anyone can browse an individual’s profile for private knowledge, view videos of someone being humiliated, such as the Star Wars Kid, bully someone, and start detrimental rumors about someone. What may seem harmless fun and laughs has very serious consequences: this material will always be available online and it will follow individuals for the rest of their lives. Unlike our elders, our generation, which Solove terms “Generation Google”, will have their private lives on display forever. Unlike in the past, where embarrassing, private mistake were viewed as a “phase” and not detrimental for an individual’s future, the private information currently available online is preventing people from obtaining jobs or maintaining a current job. When easily-accessible, personal information, no one is able to escape a bad past and start a new life for themselves: the stigma will always curse them. As Solove also points out, the Internet is not the only threat to privacy: credit cards, online shopping, cable companies, the government, and Internet service providers all have access to a variety of private information. 

I definitely believe that our privacy should be protected and that government officials should revise current policies to assist. The article mentions copyright laws and the appropriation tort but these policies are not as effective as they should be. Also, I do not believe an individual should be punished from receiving or maintaining employment based on rumors spread on the Internet or a past life that has been displayed on the Internet. Everyone has a past and individual’s have a right to prove themselves if they have changed, despite what is still on the Internet about them. If new policies are not in place for individuals, especially for “Generation Google”, the fate of everyone’s future is in jeopardy.