Privacy

Privacy

We end the year 2006 with a picture of Miechelle. This photo as taken over at an open carpark space in Chinatown. She was doing a kind of "do not shoot me" post similar to the previous entry on "Shy" by Joshua. The image was processed to give a soft glow to the image.



Privacy is the ability of an individual or group to keep their lives and personal affairs out of public view, or to control the flow of information about themselves. Privacy is sometimes related to anonymity although it is often most highly valued by people who are publicly known. Privacy can be seen as an aspect of security—one in which trade-offs between the interests of one group and another can become particularly clear.

Bodily privacy

Privacy may include preserving modesty and preventing embarrassment by preventing a person seeing someone else while naked or in underwear, or while using a toilet or urinal, having sex, etc. For that purpose a person, a couple, or a larger group of people, may seek temporary seclusion.

Genetic privacy

The concept of “genetic discrimination” and the associated need for confidentiality of genetic information, or "genetic privacy," have only recently entered our vocabulary. In numerous cases around the world, individuals and family members have been barred from employment or lost their health and life insurance based on an apparent or perceived genetic abnormality.^{[citation needed]} Many of those who have suffered discrimination are clinically healthy and exhibit none of the symptoms of a genetic disorder. Often, genetic testing results in uncertain probabilities rather than clear-cut predictions of disease. Even in the most definitive genetic conditions, which are few in number, there remains a wide variability in the timing of onset and severity of clinical symptoms. Employers have access to medical/genetic information, which may be used to discriminate against their employees.

Internet privacy

Main article: Internet privacy

Using the Internet leaves a trail of information about one's activity if privacy software, careful clean-up or a proxy server is not used. A user's computer can reveal, for example, a web browser's history, cache or logs to reveal what the user has done. Websites will also have their own logs showing the IP address and other demographic data from each computer to which it provides access.

An additional Internet privacy concern involves the erosion of “security through obscurity” as web search engines provide increased access to personal information online, such as public records, social networking profiles, biographical webpages or online resumes.

(courtesy of wikipedia.com)