Living in a world without privacy
Never hand out your phone number, and never ever tell anyone where you live. Those were instructions my father would constantly remind me to obey when I was young.
And obey I did--my home number and address would often be the only details missing in the contact list that my friends exchanged and updated each new year.
It suffices to say I hardly received any birthday or greeting cards as a child.
I grew up accustomed to not giving out my personal details to anyone, and the handful of close friends who had my number were made to swear on their hamster's grave that they would never disclose it to anyone.
The rise of the Internet and mobile communications changed all that.
Today, you can find my mobile number on my name card, and I have no qualms listing my home address--but only when required--on an electronic form.
I am concerned, however, about the growing amount and types of personal information that businesses--specifically, governments--are now demanding.
The recent 2007 International Privacy Ranking report revealed governments worldwide are increasingly invading the privacy of citizens with surveillance, identification systems and archiving private data.
According to the study, released by human rights group and privacy watchdog International Privacy, concerns over homeland security and the fight against terrorism "have rendered the fundamental right to privacy fragile and exposed".
It noted that the extent of surveillance forced upon people today has reached "an unprecedented level". It added that laws that appear to protect privacy are "frequently flawed...[and] riddled with exceptions that can allow government a free hand to intrude on private life".
I've long accepted the fact that I'll inevitably lose some privacy if I choose to be an active participant of the Internet world. Moreover, it's something that's easy to get used to when you're a citizen of a country that has no general data protection or privacy law--after all, there are reasons why Singapore made it to several "black" categories in the International Privacy report.
After the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks, it is sometimes necessary to forgo some rights to privacy in exchange for a safer living environment.
What worries me, though, is the extent some governments are willing to go in the name of homeland security. More importantly, I am concerned about whether governments put just as much care in ensuring the data collected is sufficiently secured.
For instance, do citizens have the right to sue or seek compensation when the U.K. government lost personal details of 25 million individuals in November last year? Was the U.K. government appropriately penalized and held accountable for its failure to protect the data?
Countries are often urged to pass legislation requiring businesses to improve their IT security or risk facing penalties for security breaches involving the loss of customer data.
Governments must now be held against the same standards and legislation, and be required to face the same penalties if security breaches occur due to a lack of technological safeguards. This is increasingly critical as governments gather more and more data not only from their own citizens, but also from foreigners who visit their country.
The U.S. government, for instance, has details of my fingerprint and if they leave that data unprotected, I want to be able to hold them accountable.