Privacy and Safety
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, FBI's 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
There was a case that law-enforcement agent used the database to track down an ex-girlfriend and murdered her. But in return, we give up the right to privacy to certain degree. Most of the people had the experience of receiving junk mails or emails from private companies or organization. As a result, database receives very little protection. Requiring legitimate reasons before granting access to any information would be a good way to limit unnecessary accesses or personal uses. The use of such a database makes it easier to catch the criminals, and therefore helps to provide a more desirable living environment. Without a proper regulation system, we would totally lose the right to privacy. The employees of law-enforcement agencies can easily type in a name, a social security number, or even a license plate number and get the personal information on that person without any just cause. Although it is legal, we still question whether it is ethical for companies to have such information without our knowledge. With the help of a computer database, it is done easier than ever. The records in the database are private information, like criminal or credit records. Another concern about this database is some government agencies give this database out to private companies, which brings us to another ethical issue. 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.
Common topics in this essay:
Center NCIC,
,
personal information,
private companies,
private information,
information stored,
qualify copyright protection,
law-enforcement agencies,
government agencies,
database private,
stored database,
catch criminals,
information criminal,
|