¶ … Justin Ellsworth Many for are uneasy with the rapid pace of changing technology in today's contemporary environment. There are now issues to whether or not information sent through these technologies is safe in terms of privacy concerns. For example, there is the case of Justin Ellsworth who died serving the country at war; yet whose parents demanded access to his e-mail. Ellsworth's information should still be protected under Internet privacy laws which he himself agreed to while he was alive. Therefore Yahoo should be responsible for only acting to release e-mail content that would have been related to the cause of death and could've helped an investigation.

Justin Ellsworth's case is a controversial one. On one hand, the case is not one where the individual was murdered or kidnapped. Ellsworth was a military soldier and unfortunately lost his life during combat, dying in Al Anbar. His parents then wanted more closure, which is understandable. However, Ellsworth was killed in a manner that really did not pertain to the information contained in e-mail content his parents would have seen. Despite Yahoo being at first resistant to providing such e-mail content, the family took the Internet giant to court. According to the research, "An Oakland County probate judge signed an order Wednesday directing Yahoo Inc. To provide the contents of the e-mail account used by Lance Cpl. Justin M. Ellsworth," (Associated Press,...

The parents got their wish, but at the same time they were in many ways violating the privacy of their son. Moreover, the family was still left unsatisfied even after reading the content of his e-mails. Ellsworth only had content from them, as well as spam and some other random communications. There was no closure that they had sought through violating his privacy in the first place.
This then invokes concerns over individual privacy, for Justin Ellsworth and his privacy should also be protected, even after the event of his death. Would Ellsworth have wanted his family to read his e-mail communications? This is a controversy over question, for it invokes the idea that sometimes privacy is more important to the individual than anything else. In environments where we have to fight for our privacy rights every day, was the decision to allow the family to view his e-mails regresses in terms of our fight to protect our rights on the Internet. Issues over privacy are pertinent in a variety of technological environment. According to the research, "With today's trends, keeping a handle on your privacy is going to become even harder a year from now," (Spring, 2010, p 1). Sites like Facebook are currently in the midst of a controversy over how much user content is being exploited for advertising revenues. Currently, the user has little choice but to use certain services and expose their privacy in the process. The Internet and the…