No

by Brandon Sams

Created on: December 16, 2010   Last Updated: December 22, 2010

Is Wiki Leaks infringing on other people's rights to privacy?

To understand this topic we must first understand what privacy rights are and what is in infringing. First let’s begin with “privacy rights.” Privacy is the ability to keep ones personal information locked away from public viewing. This would include those special numbers like your SSN, checking account, and credit card numbers. But, when there is the inclusion of the word “rights” it implies a characteristic in a social form. In other words, our thoughts, our emotions, and our opinions should be able to remain hidden and not be exposed to cause us direct harm. Wikileaks at this point do not truly care for your secretive numbers but they are interested in your social information and of governments.

Secondly we need to understand what “infringing” is.  Infringing is a violation of the border between private and public access of information. However, the border between the two is hard to place and it would also be questionable as to if there was an imaginary border at all. The best spot to place this imaginary border would be at the point where information becomes public. That point is where the supposed information in a social realm becomes printed, shared, or reproduced in some way to make it accessible.

Now that we understand the grounds of the debate we can continue to attribute a case, “Wikileaks are not...” Why? There is a right to privacy but if is the person wants to remain private, responsibility to keep it that way not the other way around.  As we continue into the future of social internet media we can see how this holds true. Sites like Facebook allow a person to post status updates in real-time media. Notice that Facebook allows and not requires the media. Through that example we can see how the right to privacy is used at the owner’s discretion and can be waived like any other right. If the documents are printed then it is also up to the owner of the information to keep it secure, because hackers, thieves, and even reporters are not going to stop investigating as it is their nature. So if, people don’t want loss of privacy don’t go public.

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