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Technological Advances Threaten Privacy Essay

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Technological Advances Threaten Privacy

The year is 2004. By now, our technology is so advanced that we’ve built robots to do common daily tasks for us. To many people, all of this technology seems like a dream come true. What they don’t realize is that the magnitude of complex technology can go the other way as well. The Internet is a cyber jungle filled with a lot of hunters, and even more prey. Just by hooking ourselves in with all of this new technology we have threatened our privacy. With the click of a mouse, almost anyone can gain access to personal information for just about anyone. While technology causes serious threats to privacy, there are several ways to help prevent against these threats.

At the top of the list though …show more content…

Additionally, the “Verichip,” an RFID embedded under the skin to convey health information, will benefit the medical field especially in emergency, and is now approved by the FDA (Dipert 54). Those subjected to this technology cannot control personal information stored, whether in corporate, medical, or government databases. Regardless of some of the benefits of RFIDs, legislation will need to advance along with this technology in turn to protect citizens from invasion of their privacy rights.

Technology has threatened privacy by allowing one to use the web to find personal information of others. This leads to identity theft, or using one's personal information as if it belonged to you. The most “popular” form of identity theft is credit card fraud. According to USA Today, the monetary lost for the year 2003 has been a total of $17.1 million, which was a tremendous increase from 1999, whose total was $3.2 million. In 2003 the number of fraud reports was 37.2 thousand. On December 4, 2003, President Bush planned to put a stop to the increasing statistics by signing the Fair and Accurate Transaction Act. The Identity Theft Protection Information and Resource Center states, “There is no fool proof way to protect yourself from identity theft.” They also give more information on keeping valuables safe when not in use, keeping bank account and Social Security numbers confidential, and checking credit reports at least once a year.

Camera phones, though a recent

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