We live in a time where new and powerful technologies are emerging at a fast pace, and the way these will be used can determine how much privacy we may have in the future, which consequently, can affect our freedom. There are different views on whether or not users should be allowed to navigate privately on the web and have their personal information encrypted (such as e-mails). However, according to Article 8 of the Human Rights Act:
“Everyone has the right to respect for their private and family life, his home and his correspondence.”
- Article 8 of the Human Rights Act
This is what’s happening.
These different perspectives on privacy are having multiple results. Some companies create services with high data encryption levels, to such an extent that not even the service provider is able to access the information stored in their servers, with the aim of protecting users. However, some governments claim that it is more appropriate to know everything about the user at any given time by banning unbreakable encryption, or by extracting users personal information instantly in order to protect citizens from criminal activities and terrorism.
“It’s common sense — if we close all doors and windows in our house, it’s unlikely for someone unwanted to come in.”
The meaning of privacy.
Privacy may be defined as a state in which one is not observed or disturbed by other people, and therefore free from public attention.
Why encrypted equals safe.
Services that encrypt information are safer because the user is the only one that has access to it (this might change in case of suspicious of illegal activities). On the other hand, if there are any ‘back doors’ open for the government, this would potentially allow bad actors to use them as well. It’s common sense — if we close all doors and windows in our house, it’s unlikely for someone unwanted to come in.
In that sense it seems preferable to keep our information encrypted, and if the government needs to obtain personal information of someone, they will still be able to, provided they have good reason to do so. Additionally, being able to control what we want to share goes more along the lines of our human rights, and people tend to want their rights respected.
I want to try services that keep my information private:
- DuckDuckGo is a free powerful search engine that doesn’t track it’s users.
- ProtonMail provides an e-mail service that uses end-to-end encryption, also for free (it’s becoming popular, so expect to be included on a waiting list for a while).