Technology. Convenience. Privacy.

“The personal life of every individual is based on secrecy, and perhaps it is partly for that reason that civilized man is so nervously anxious that personal privacy should be respected.” – Anton Chekhov (Russian writer) wrote back in 1899. Today, these words are meaningful like never before. Technology penetrated all walks of our lives. We leave digital tracks everywhere we go. Nothing about our lives is secret anymore. As we go about our daily routine, we unintentionally share more data than we realize. And I am not talking about information we share on social sites. In the interview to CNN Doug Klunder, director of the ACLU of Washington’s Privacy Project, says “It starts the moment you get up, just moving around is tracked. If it’s on a bus, and you are paying with bus cards, that can be tracked. If you are driving your car, there are increasingly video cameras that recognize license plates. Anytime you have a cell phone on, it’s talking with cell towers and creating a record of where you are down to 100 feet.” Sounds scary. Then, we add credit card use, which exposes our interests, hobbies, spending habits. After that, we add our browsing history, which can indicate our political and religious views. We handle most of our sensitive information through the internet. NOTHING is out of limits. A stranger can know the most intimate details of my life and it feels very uncomfortable. But that is just how I feel. Steve Rambam, a private investigator, for instance says: “Privacy is Dead: Get Over It!” I think he means that it is an equal playing field for all or most of us. We are all exposed. BUT, he argues that people are in a sense compensated for the personal information they divulge. “The average American finds a very healthy acceptable balance between privacy and convenience; they give up some privacy and get a lot of convenience.” Yes, I agree. We do get spoiled in some ways. We can shop, make travel plans, manage bank accounts and get education all from the comfort of our homes. However, don’t we pay too steep of a price for a convenience? It is difficult to say. Probably, the victims of identity theft would say yes. Last year, more than 11 millions U.S. consumers were victims of identity theft, according to an annual survey released last month by Javelin Strategy and Research. For them the price for the convenience created by technology progress cost about $5400 on average. It is steep enough for me.
Yes, we trade privacy for convenience every day. But we have to learn how to protect ourselves, how to avoid scams and how to minimize the amount of the sensitive information we share. And even though it will not eliminate all privacy concerns, but at least it will give us a piece of mind and a chance to sleep at night.