Big Brother

Someone has always been there to tell you what to do in life. As a young child, you were told to behave properly and not to eat too many sweets. As you grew older and older, it seemed as if the responsibilities became greater and greater in number. Even as an adult, there was always an officious boss telling you what to do. There was always some higher force that bound your actions. Authority has always been with us; its laws are instilled within us. Most times, we know what is right and what is wrong. It is wrong to steal, and authority punishes us for doing so. It is wrong to disobey the government, and authority again punishes us for doing so. These truths are imposed upon us. Authority not only dictates the way we act, but it also changes our outlook on life. Making someone change the way they have viewed the world their whole life is something that authority has the power to make you do.

There are no real rights to privacy anymore because Big brother is always watching you. People enjoy having private spaces, and want to keep them. Privacy is the interest that individuals have in sustaining a 'personal space', free from interference by other people and organizations. Individuals claim that data about themselves should not be automatically available to other individuals and organizations, and that, even where data is possessed by another party, the individual must be able to exercise a substantial degree of control over that data and its use.

As the twenty first century dawns, advances in technology endanger our privacy in ways never before imagined. Each time you use the ATM, visit the doctor, use a credit card, chat on the Internet, or make a phone call, you are leaving electronic fingerprints for all who want to peer into your private life. Nearly every quantifiable aspect of a person's life finds it way into a data bank somewhere. This information is sometimes studied, other times ignored completely, and other times it's sold without the consent of that person.

Next time your surfing on the Net or flicking off e-mail messages to your friends, you may want to think twice about what you're sending or viewing. What you may not know is that upstairs, downstairs, or even in an office across the country, someone may be watching you. They may know the server you're logged in on and the Web site you're at, they may have kept a copy of the e-mail message you just sent to a friend, and they may even be looking at a monitor that shows them exactly what's on your screen.

It might sound sensational, but the fact is, electronic data logging and monitoring is becoming a lot easier to do, and a lot more common than most people think. What's more, it's legal.

In short, privacy is very cherished by many people, and invasion of privacy only leads to problems. Everyone should have his or her own right to privacy and protection of personal information without feeling