We live in pretty interesting times . The people’s views have changed quite dramatically . What was a big “no-no” only decades ago is today’s “sure why not”. We see a lot of different examples of that. And Most of the example are good. Things like gay marriage and marijuana legalization could not be imagined during the 50s, but today it’s a reality in certain states.
Technology has a big part in this evolution also. Electronic storage and data extraction from huge depositories of information facilitated many tedious tasks. Formerly we were forced to sift through tons of paper to find a record. Now it is done with a click of a button. It is also more secure in a physical sense. A natural disaster no longer threatens the integrity of the documents. Files are backed up on servers which are in different places.
But this is where things get complicated. Bad guys can also gain access to these databases. It makes our personal information vulnerable to rogue attacks. Even the latest firewalls and ant viruses cannot guarantee that information will not leak.
It doesn’t mean that bad guys should dictate how we access and store the information. Database access is still very convenient even for regular people like you and me. private-ppl-search.com/bierly/5.htm is a good example of how freedom of information can help people.
You can run a reverse phone lookup on a number to find out who the owner is. Potential benefits of this service are amazing. If one received a phone call from a toll free number he or she can use a reverse lookup to discover the company’s name. This is also an effective method to catch a prank caller.
Unfortunately this innocent service can be used in a bad way.
A sexual predator also knows how to use reverse lookups. An unsuspecting individual might share the phone number with a stranger who will use it for all the wrong reasons.
Sometimes there is a really thin line between danger and convenience. There are no easy answers when it comes to privacy.
In my view it is up to the people to decide what information should be collected and disclosed. Our expressions of freedom are like small grains which are easy to lose but hard to get back. One day we might wake up and see our privacy rights completely vanished. And when that stage is reached it’s often a done deal which is hard to reverse. I see only one possible solution which can help us avoid this nightmare. I believe that privacy matters should be voted on by every citizen.