COM125 Assignment - Voyeur with Sousveillance

Privacy derives from the word private. Private should be kept to yourself like private files, or private social security numbers. We want those things to be kept private. When someone infringes on our privacy, per se the media or big companies, we are being in a way, attacked. Being attacked is not fun, nor is it beneficial to the individuals being attacked, in any sort of way. On the other hand, the counter-part may have a benefit that is exponentially bigger and can gain tremendous amounts of money or power with one action.

There are many different levels of privacy. So there must be an extent to privacy infringement. Generally, privacy can be most easily invaded with video cameras or photo cameras. Sousveillance is now a major means of regulation by big companies wanting to minimize theft and danger.

"The term 'sousveillance' stems from the contrasting French words sur, meaning 'above', and sous, meaning 'below', i.e. 'surveillance' denotes the 'eye-in-the-sky' watching from above, whereas 'sousveillance' denotes bringing the camera or other means of observation down to human level, either physically or hierarchically"(Wiki)

These utilities that are originally supposed to be used to help the public people are being placed into the wrong hands, leading directly into wrong uses and turmoil within the world of privacy. For example, in a dressing room, if someone sets up a camera, your privacy is being invaded. The cameras should be used for protection or monitoring.

“But cameras accidentally catch innocents, too. Virginia Shelton, 46, her daughter, Shirley, 16; and a friend, Jennifer Starkey, 17, were all arrested and charged with murder in 2003 because of an out-of-synch ATM camera. Their pictures were flashed in front of a national audience and they spent three weeks in a Maryland jail before it was discovered that the camera was set to the wrong time.” (Sullivan)

A prime example of privacy infringement would be spying on instant messaging or means of internet communication. If someone were able to spy on a one-to-one conversation, an unwanted third-party member would be infringing on your privacy. Now imagine video chat as your only method of instant communication online. You would be using the camera for the right purpose. Imagine just chatting long distance to a cousin in Thailand about your family matters and personal business. Imagine someone spying on an online-video conversation of married couple where the husband is away on a business trip for a year in another country. Infringement on that type of conversation is taking invasion of privacy too far. If I knew the person spying on my conversation I would be extremely hot-headed and want to give excruciating pain to this third-party that is uninvited in to our video conversation.

That is one of the ways privacy can be invaded. Another way is through big companies that want to get a cheap and efficient form of advertising, through e-mail, also known as spam.

"Moving text-based communication from paper to the computer screen has had a profound impact on the way individuals and businesses correspond. Once the exclusive domain of academics and researchers, internet messaging begin to expand to the general public in the early 1990s. Technically literate entrepreneurs quickly realized that this new media also provided an unprecedented new advertising opportunity."(Lackaff)

Secretly taking the identities or email addresses of people is immoral and not looked happily upon. This form of advertising gets me quite annoyed because the Buffalo web mail System does not have spam-blocker. So, as you can see, ruthless individuals who practice privacy infringement is not only a form a profit but can make huge impact on the lives of innocent human beings.

Works Cited

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sousveillance

Bob, Sullivan. (2006) "Privacy Under Attack, But Does Anybody Care?" msNBC 17 Oct. 2006. 17 July 2007 . http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15221095/

Lackaff, D. (2003). Norm maintenance in online communities: A review of moderation regimes Unpublished master's (preliminary) thesis, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Victoria, Australia.