LAB+5


 * //__Lab Assignment 5 *__//**

Eric Schmidt - "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."

Privacy is an important element of human life. It interacts with our daily existence, as well as our professional lives e.g. doctor-patient confidentiality. The infringement of this privacy is of great concern to any individual. Eric Schmidt’s statement is a very controversial one. To an extent Eric Schmidt’s statement is agreeable - if you don’t want someone to find out a secret, you should not only keep it out of the public domain, but keep it out of places where others could access it as well - Knowing that Google and open creative communities can check and sift through our details, we should know not to send sensitive information through emails, etc. In addition, Mail law states that once you place a mail in the post box, it is no longer your property - you might have copyright on the content of the letter - however it no longer belongs to you. By law the mailing company is allowed to read your letter. I believe a similar concept must apply to emails too, considering they are virtual letters through the web. Thus, for the value of our privacy, we should not post information we do not wish to share, or give others the opportunities to gain access.

Alternatively, thinking of it from a moral standpoint, it seems ludicrous that these online communities such as Google are allowed to read our information - private or public. Maybe not technically or even legally, however morally, I believe that by reading our emails Google and other creative communities are going against the 1st amendment of the U.S. (freedom of speech). Google, as a U.S. based company, should consider these implications. Therefore, Eric Schmidt’s statement addressing confidentiality is overrated as privacy is so highly valued, and its violation is distressing.