Do you ever feel afraid of the fact that somebody might be watching over you, and you don't know that you've been watched?
Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) is a thing that you always see everywhere, in your apartment, in the elevator, shops, shopping malls, and even in SIM's computer lab! The need of surveillance has been increased as people realized that security guards might not be so much efficient, because they can't really watch people doing so and so in certain hidden places.
When some people gain benefit from the existence of CCTV and other spy cameras, some might feel insecure knowing that they are being watched by somebody that they don't even know.
There were cases when people were offended by the presence of surveillance cameras. One of them was happened in 2003, when 3 innocent people were caught by ATM camera and suspected to perform a murder. They stayed for 3 weeks in prison, until it was discovered that the camera was set to the wrong time, so they had nothing to do with the murder case. (Sullivan, 2006)
We also deal with some privacy matters as those spying cameras are spread all over the place. We might become paranoid after reading news about hidden cameras in fitting rooms and toilets. Celebrities would be extra careful knowing that there are hundreds of paparazzi in in forms of pedestrians, hot dog sellers, taxi drivers, and anything else, try to capture their picture doing something that they don't usually do in public.
(Paris Hilton caught in the act!)
In the rise of Internet era, people can easily get access to others' privacy. Therefore, we are experiencing the Omnipticon in which the many are watching the many, even though no one knows precisely who is watching or being watched at any given time (Rosen, 2004). It's not only about spy cameras and all that, but people can also get your private information through everything that you revealed online. It might be your personal identity, your interests, your email address, or even your house address. It is funny to figure out that we are afraid of letting others exceed the line of our privacy, yet we keep revealing our own private information through our blog, personal websites, or other sources that require you to mention some of your privacy. In other words, we are opening the gate for others to enter the stage of our privacy. So why are we still uncomfortable of the fact that our privacy are now being exposed to numbers of people?
An old expression explains it well, “You don't know what you've got until you lost it.” Sullivan (2006) also mentioned in his article, “But it’s like health: When you have it, you don’t notice it. Only when it’s gone do you wish you’d done more to protect it.”
However, there are reasons behind the reality that we are exposing our own privacy. As I have mentioned before, there are few circumstances that require people to reveal some of their private identity. I will put myself as a VICTIM of the circumstance. I love to download free-trial games from different game sites: Yahoo games, MSN games, BigfishGame, PlayFirst, etc. The problem is that they always ask for my email address to verify whatever things that they mentioned – Just like everybody else, I did not really read the terms and conditions. I thought you can predict that I ended up of receiving too many spams everyday in my inbox. For this kind of situation, people usually do not hesitate of “trading” a little bit of their privacy for something which is more worthy according to what they think. People realize there could be future costs, but they decide not to focus on those costs. In fact, it might be dangerous of letting your little privacy slipped away. It may end up in people phishing your identity! Who knows what might happen?
While some people reveal their privacy “unconsciously”,there are also people who reveal their identity “on purpose” to seek attention from others. Narcissism, that is. Nowadays, more and more people try to define themselves, or maybe other than themselves – pseudonimity, in such a manner that others might put an extra attention to what they defined. For me, the most popular medium for narcissism is Friendster, as I also show my narcissistic through my account (visit me: www.friendster.com/cheillalala). However, revealing your privacy in a narcissistic manner brings some disadvantages, too. Besides the problem of phishing and identity theft, Assosciated Press (2007) wrote that the narcissists may have problem in terms of breakdown of close relationships with others. Personally, I don't agree with this statement. I am probably one of the most narcissistic people out there, yet I don't experience any relationship problem regarding this matter of being a narcissist.
Conclusion
The matter of privacy ends up with an argument: Nothing to hide VS No place to hide (Sullivan, 2006). On one hand, if we have nothing to hide, why should we afraid of our email being recorded by the gaming company, people know your life story by reading your self-defined identity through friendster or personal blog?
On the other hand, we might also say that there's no place to hide. When security becomes more important, we will see the presence of CCTV even more. Thus, every single thing that we do is caught on camera. When most company requires a little bit of your privacy, name, address, phone number, or email adress, for verification purpose, we have nothing less to hide.
References
Rosen, J. (July 19, 2004). The Naked Crowd: America's culture of self-revelation spells the end of privacy and the promotion of a smothering conformity. Retrieved on March 9, 2007 from http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/0000000CA5FF.htm
Sullivan, B. (2006). Privacy Lost: Does Anybody Care? Retrieved March 9, 2007, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15221095/print/1/displaymode/1098/
The Assosciated Press, (2007, Febuary 27). Study: Vanity on the rise among college students. Retrieved March 9, 2007, from CNN.com Web site: http://www.cnn.com/2007/EDUCATION/02/27/self.centered.students.ap/index.html
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