Privacy and Safety essays

Privacy and Safety essays We live in a large ordered society with millions of people. Privacy is essential for quality of life, but the security and order of society requires certain degree of government monitoring. So how much privacy we should give up to ensure our safety and being part of the society? Where do we draw the line? For example, FBIs National Crime Information Center (NCIC) was established to help law-enforcement agencies around the country by sharing information such as criminal records [1]. It contains records of more than twenty million people. On the upside, it helps the police to catch criminals especially the ones traveling in between states. But on the other hand, the abuse and lack of control of the data, which is extremely private information, presents a huge threat to the personal privacy. The intention of creating such a database was good that it helps the government to punish the criminals and lower the crime rate to provide a better and safer society for us. With such a detailed database, it provides more information to help police to narrow down the suspects in a particular region and to track down fugitives that escape to a different state. It is undisputable that providing a safer environment for the citizens is one of the fundamental tasks of a government. The use of such a database makes it easier to catch the criminals, and therefore helps to provide a more desirable living environment. But in return, we give up the right to privacy to certain degree. The records in the database are private information, like criminal or credit records. Because of lack of laws to regulate the Internet database and the easy access from the government agencies, abuse and misuse of the database is unavoidable. According to the law, compilation does not qualify for copyright protection unless information is selected, coordinated or arranged in an original manner. Thus, non-original, noncreative databases (such as an alphabeti...