Blogpost 7: Invasion of Privacy

Nowadays, privacy of life is somehow not private as it is. This is done through CCTV(Closed-Circuit Television) cameras, wire tapping, hidden cameras, sound recorders, and many gadgets that were invented to record and document certain activity. Also, government requires everyone to tell more and more about ourselves. Examples are the Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth(SALN) of senators to review their financial statuses and tax documentations of celebrities to ensure that they are paying their taxes accurately.

In Detective Conan, presentation of facts and how the data are captured by Conan Edogawa in solving criminal cases and detecting who is responsible for that crime seem to be in the sense of invading the privacy of the person. According to Michael Pollick who wrote an article entitled "What is Invasion of Privacy?" at the website wisegeek, invasion of privacy is a legal term referring to a person's right to retain his life private and free from interruption of others. There are four aspects of invasion of privacy, these are the following: a) intrusion of solitude – actual physical or electronic interruption of a person's private home or personal space; b) public disclosure of public facts – the data are real but the way the information is obtained and published on the public is not appropriate; c) false light – someone intentionally falsifies the personality, story, activities or notions of another person and; d) misappropriation of a person's image or name – use of celebrity's name to endorse a product without his consent.

I asked myself and made a researched about how such information are obtained through invasion of someone's privacy. I found this article entitled "The Invasion of Privacy" by Richard H. Rovere at the website theamericanscholar. According to this article, “bugging” is the utilization of hidden electronic devices by absentee eavesdroppers such as policemen, detectives, and some private and public investigators. And these absentee eavesdroppers are in large number and pernicious.

"Technology has forced the surrender of a measure of privacy in many different ways." - Richard H. Rovere

Advancing technology is one of the main way in invading one's privacy. Through wire tapping and sound recorders, you can easily listen to conversations of anybody deliberately. Just like in Detective Conan, Conan Edogawa uses his glasses modification(microphone) to listen to somebody's conversations and gather information that he needed.

Invasion of someone's privacy is generally pestiferous. But behind this troublesome intrusion of privacy, it also has good effects. I have read an article entitled "Invasion of Privacy for Public Good" by Paul Mallone at the website SMH. According to this article, invasion of privacy is also has good welfare for the public. It gives an account who did what(act against the law) ad assists authorities in taking accurate action and punishment. Like CCTV cameras, it offer an important amount of security to the public.

"... recording devices are proving their worth everywhere..." - Paul Mallone

Recording devices such as CCTV cameras are also proved to be essential in catching criminals. Just like in Detective Conan, when Conan is invading someone's privacy, he finds significant facts in solving criminal cases and in chasing the one responsible for that crime scenes.

After reading the two articles, I have realized that technology indeed has affected and changed attitudes regarding privacy. But when we look deeper into it, we will find out that technology has positive benefits. Moreover, it is worth intruding one's privacy as long as everybody is protected from danger.