Why Privacy Is Important

Right to privacy has been under attack in recent years from many sources. Issues such as terrorism and technological development has provided an opportunity and an excuse to lessen the protections that have been previously awarded Americans, as well as citizens of a number of other countries, in the name of their own protection. Albeit the threats of terrorism are real, there are also a series of threats that come from the violation of citizens' right to maintain their privacy in their daily activities. It is not only an invasion of privacy from the governments around the world that is an issue, but private organizations are also able to collect an immense amount of intrusive data about their customers or target markets. A legitimate balance between these concerns must be reached and in a timely manner because there is a significant amount of evidence that this balance is uneven and many thresholds of privacy protections have already been crossed.

Although privacy concerns were already an issue with the growing presence of digital technologies in our daily lives, these concerns were blown out of the water by recent leaks of classified documents. Although governments' have tried to deny or minimize the revelations of the amount of data they are collecting on ordinary citizens' daily lives, the evidence is quite clear that every aspect of our lives is being directly or indirectly monitored. One reporter summarized the Edward Snowden leaks, the largest leaks in history, in this way (Gellman, 2013):

"Taken together, the revelations have brought to light a global surveillance system that cast off many of its historical restraints after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Secret legal authorities empowered the NSA to sweep in the telephone, Internet and location records of whole populations. One of the leaked presentation slides described the agency's "collection philosophy" as "Order one of everything off the menu."

Government agencies, especially U.S. agencies, or collecting virtually every bit of data that they can and warehousing it -- thus representing an invasion of privacy on a mass scale.

To defend the position that the rights to privacy are a worthy cause that is worth fighting for and reestablishing, you must first understand the inherent value in privacy. Through the course of human development, people grow and learn new things and most continuously redefine how they identify and define themselves. We are, or should be, allowed to experiment with autonomy and try new things and expand our worldviews in relative privacy. In many cases, by being able to experiment with new thoughts, groups, or ideas is what we base our experience upon.

However, the notion and the understanding that we are constantly under surveillance at all times denies us these rights. If an individual knows that every action that they take, every idea that they google, or any person they talk will be somehow recorded and used for private gain or government surveillance, from a psychological standpoint, we are not free. We are not free to experiment. We are not free to develop autonomously. We are not free to be in a relaxed state and chose our own decisions uninterrupted.