Privacy and Its Ethical Dilemmas

 Privacy and Its Ethical Dilemmas

Listening to several different TED talks, it was alarming to find out how much of our privacy is compromised. Learning about privacy in these talks reminded me of The Truman Show. It’s as if every conversation and all our personal information is up for surveillance, and without research, most wouldn't know that a “private” phone call isn't very private!
 At first, I knew about the Patriots Act that was administered after 9/11 to track calls to monitor for any suspicious activity. Still, I didn't realize our telephones and the networks that carry our calls were wired for surveillance first. I have read about privacy violation issues about US government involvement in our personal lives. For example, if I were to talk to my spouse or family but it didn't cross my mind that another government, a stalker, or a hacker could be listening until Christopher Soghoian’s Ted Talk! All it takes is someone who can break into the surveillance system.

There is confusion when it comes to privacy and breaking moral/ethical codes. I believe we try to justify the infringement, but it's also hard to stand by and have your rights be taken away from you.
Yes, we want the government to be able to listen in an identify potential terrorist threats or drug deals, but there is no such thing as a terrorist laptop or a drug cellphone. What this means is that if terrorist telephone calls can be intercepted, so can ours.
An example of this was In 2009, when the surveillance system at Microsoft and Google was compromised by the Chinese government because the Chinese government wanted to figure out which one of their own agents the US government was monitoring.

 I like the metaphor Christopher used by saying when you build a backdoor and leave it open, you don't know who could come through it. Someone non-threatening like a friend or someone could break in through that backdoor, and the same applies in the communication world. If you leave a backdoor into a communication network open, you have no way of controlling who will go through it, good guys or bad guys.
Even though there are many pros to building software to protect our privacy and make interception impossible, the downside of building networks to be as secure would be that it'd make it impossible to catch the bad such as terrorists. The world has to choose what is more important to them, and that goes into different people's perspectives of what liberties they are willing to give up.
https://www.ted.com/talks/christopher_soghoian_how_to_avoid_surveillance_with_the_phone_in_your_pocket