Invasion of privacy must be weighed against security risks for bothindividuals and nations

Surveillance camera

A new tool, InternetReputation.com,  allows a user to remove personal information from places like People Search and other data resource sites.  Often these sites allow people to find out the background of a potential employee or a troublesome neighbor. At what point is there an invasion of privacy?

 So what is the balance of information resources with these new tools that allow people to erase their history and present themselves potentially as someone they are not?

While people worry about invasion of privacy, experts remind us there is a balance in seeking information for legitimate reasons and using personal information to do the reverse, commit a crime, harass or perpetrate some harmful mischief on an unsuspecting victim.  Many of these experts cite the potential violation of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

On the other hand, there are people who advance themselves as having expertise they don't have in under to obtain money or power.  That neighbor who inserts herself into every decision made in a community group, claiming to have the expertise to manage the affairs, may indeed never have had any experience related to management and may, in fact, have had minor criminal offenses, personal bankruptcy or other problems that would negate such an individual from being a part of community leadership.

An employer has a job requiring money handling and needs someone with a track record of honesty and experience in money management, requiring employment screening and background verification.  What happens when agencies like Intellicorp find negative information about an information that can be scrubbed from an applicant's history?

These are the questions raised in a society where privacy is of value and yet so is security.  When it is possible to obtain a false identity and use that identity to prey on the helpless and hapless in a culture, then there is need to protect people from doing that.  Still others offer untrue statements that can cause harm to individuals and groups.

The balance between security and privacy concerns is not just a national issue, as in the case of the government obtaining records from various agencies and social media sites, brought up in recent discussions about Edward Snowden,  a computer expert hired to assist in gathering such information who unleashed a firestorm of public opinion when he stole records and reported government surveillance activities.  It also involves small groups or even private individuals.  That is why the situation concerning spying on others or having the ability to research information relevant to making an employment or financial situation becomes problematical in the case of laws that offer absolutes.  For in many cases, the solution is an ethical one and not an easy one to determine.    An individual who believes personal privacy must be protected at all costs must therefore be prepared to bear the burden of security risks as well, risks that can create harm in many ways to individuals and to nations.