Protection of Personal Rights. For Instance, in

¶ … protection of personal rights. For instance, in the case of the U.S. Supreme Court on Griswold V. Connecticut, married couples should have the rights to privacy when it comes to birth control. PROTECTING THE RIGHTS TO PRIVACY Imagine the state telling people how many children they can have, what birth control methods they can use, and blasting the personal information of individuals on the television, computer, radio and etc.

Personal information about what diseases, medical health, salaries, how many times an individual has been married, how many divorces, and other personal rights should be protected by the Fourth and Fifth Amendments. Should the state laws have the ability to give personal information to others? Should companies or individuals have the right to get personal information about a person off the computers? What should individuals do to keep their privacy? In Connecticut, it is a crime for a person to use any drug or article to prevent conception (Caselaw 1).

The statute of Connecticut states, "Any person who uses any drug, medicinal article or instrument for the purpose of preventing conception shall be fined not less than fifty dollars or imprisoned not less than sixty days nor more than one year or be both fined and imprisoned" (Caselaw 2). Imagine being fined because a person wanted to prevent pregnancy. "We deal with a right of privacy older than the Bill of Rights - older than our political parties, older than our school system" (Caselaw 4).

This is going a little far for the state to tell a person he/she cannot protect herself/himself against pregnancy. It seems people are losing their rights to privacy more each day. The Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendment provide for the rights to privacy. Yet, it seems that the American public is losing that right. "Anonymous data is collected automatically about site visitors, indicating the browser type, operating system, Internet service provider, or the site they clicked from.

We use this data to determine the total number of site visits and the average level time visitors spend at the site" (Human 1). People are able to get information from cookies or other technologies. This is private information about an individual, but this information is passed on to others.

Electronic mail, web surfing, and other online resources open the door to a whole world of computerized communication that often others can easily get including the different information about the use of credit cards and whether the people pay their bills on time or even if a person wanted to order various products (CPSR 1).

Whose business is it that an adult takes? Should not various areas of the computer be private? Does the person have rights regarding what they look at on the computer? Many individuals do not want others having their private information about different aspects of their lives. The federal Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 has created the opportunity for a person to balance his/her rights to privacy with various financial institutions' need to share information (FDIC 1).

The FDIC's Division of Compliance and Consumer Affairs recommends reading the fine print of the statements that a person receives and responding to the directions they offer for them not to give out private information. "Some (but not all) financial institutions share this information with other entities - including completely unaffiliated companies such as retailers, telemarketers, airlines and non-profit organizations - to help them target consumers who might be interested in their products or programs" (Fdic 2).

The new law requires companies to tell a person about the information that it shares. Secondly, if the companies share this information with companies not related to them, they have to tell the person. Third, the law requires for them to tell the person how they will protect the individual. Each person has the right to "opt out." The individual should notify the company that they want to " opt out." The fact is there is very little that is private anymore.

Almost everything about a person can be obtained from some site on the Internet. It is like opening a diary of a person's life and learning all there is to know about them. Nothing is private if it has been placed on the Internet. Even health records are no longer private. "With the continued growth of third person health maintenance organizations (HMO's), doctors are required to share their records with each other and the HMOs.

Employees, health and life insurance companies, and even different drug companies can easily access the private health records of an individual (Privacy 1). The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has taken various steps to protect the rights of different individuals. They have filed several lawsuits to try to force governments to reveal what information they may have about individuals. The FBI can obtain almost any information that they want about an individual even if they have done nothing wrong.

"The Federal Communications Commission has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking on the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), a federal law that regulates telemarketing and fax advertising. The notice requests comments on creating a national do-not-call list, and on regulations for autodialers and prerecorded voice telemarketing" (EPIC 1). There are many laws and court cases concerning the rights of privacy, but it is not enough because people still can get private information about a person.

A person should have the freedom to use the computer in one's home without worrying about others learning personal facts. A person should be able to order products without worrying about other junk-mail companies obtaining information. A person cannot even order something from an 800 number without having their information sold. "Avoid calling 800, 888, 877, 866, and 900 numbers unless you already have a relationship with the company (like your favorite catalog company). When calling these.