The idea of privacy is not a new one. For years, philosophers have struggled to define privacy, and to decide how much privacy is too much [1]. Recently, this has led to the debate of information privacy, and what right people have to their own data online. This topic plays a huge role in the movie Snowden.
In chapter five of Ethics for the Information Age, the author talks about public/private conflicts. A public/private conflict is the idea that while most of the time people clearly distinguish between their public (work) lives and their private (home) lives, sometimes a private activity can have a huge impact on their public view. For example, if a candidate for public office loses millions of dollars gambling on his weekends in Las Vegas, does the public’s interest outweigh the politician’s desire for privacy [1]? This idea comes into play on a massive scale in Snowden. In the movie, Edward Snowden discovers during his time in the NSA that the government has a massive database and search program containing information on everyone they can. He also speaks to many high-up officials in both the CIA and the NSA, all of whom justify the use of such programs as tools used to predict and prevent terrorism attacks. In this way, the government is making the decision for the entire country as a whole, and weighing the benefit of a theoretical advantage in protection over the American people’s privacy.
Another big idea brought up in the Information Privacy chapter is the idea of too much privacy. Privacy is clearly necessary in modern society; it allows people to be themselves and develop as individuals, away from the rest of society and without being self-conscious of their behavior [1]. However, too much privacy is a bad thing. Many immoral activities happen under the cover of privacy, and privacy can create an environment where the rich and powerful become more rich and powerful by coordinating with each other against the rest of society [1]. This is another huge topic of the movie Snowden, as many people throughout the movie consider revealing the government’s wrongdoings. As CIA recruiter Corbin O’Brian says, the first rule of combat is to “never reveal your position”. Traditionally, this applied to actual units and soldiers on a battlefield, but in the information age, its meaning has changed. As O’Brian tells Snowden, the “modern battlefield is everywhere”, and if “one unauthorized person knew” what the government was doing, then so would the enemy. While it may seem wrong for the government to gather all this information without the American citizens knowing, if the people did know, then so would the enemy, and it would become infinitely harder for the data to serve its purpose.
At the end of the movie, Snowden makes the decision to reveal the information, valuing the people’s need for privacy over the government’s desire for surveillance, and it’s hard to know if this was the right decision or not. A result of this action is that the government will have a harder time doing anything immoral, now that the country knows some of what they have done. However, at the same time, any potential terrorists will undoubtedly be much more careful, as they now know the government is listening. Snowden helped to give the people their privacy back, but in the process, he broke the first rule of combat – he revealed the government’s position on information privacy.
References:
1: Michael J. Quinn, “Information Privacy” in Ethics for the Information Age, 7th ed. Pearson, 2016, ch. 5
In chapter five of Ethics for the Information Age, the author talks about public/private conflicts. A public/private conflict is the idea that while most of the time people clearly distinguish between their public (work) lives and their private (home) lives, sometimes a private activity can have a huge impact on their public view. For example, if a candidate for public office loses millions of dollars gambling on his weekends in Las Vegas, does the public’s interest outweigh the politician’s desire for privacy [1]? This idea comes into play on a massive scale in Snowden. In the movie, Edward Snowden discovers during his time in the NSA that the government has a massive database and search program containing information on everyone they can. He also speaks to many high-up officials in both the CIA and the NSA, all of whom justify the use of such programs as tools used to predict and prevent terrorism attacks. In this way, the government is making the decision for the entire country as a whole, and weighing the benefit of a theoretical advantage in protection over the American people’s privacy.
Another big idea brought up in the Information Privacy chapter is the idea of too much privacy. Privacy is clearly necessary in modern society; it allows people to be themselves and develop as individuals, away from the rest of society and without being self-conscious of their behavior [1]. However, too much privacy is a bad thing. Many immoral activities happen under the cover of privacy, and privacy can create an environment where the rich and powerful become more rich and powerful by coordinating with each other against the rest of society [1]. This is another huge topic of the movie Snowden, as many people throughout the movie consider revealing the government’s wrongdoings. As CIA recruiter Corbin O’Brian says, the first rule of combat is to “never reveal your position”. Traditionally, this applied to actual units and soldiers on a battlefield, but in the information age, its meaning has changed. As O’Brian tells Snowden, the “modern battlefield is everywhere”, and if “one unauthorized person knew” what the government was doing, then so would the enemy. While it may seem wrong for the government to gather all this information without the American citizens knowing, if the people did know, then so would the enemy, and it would become infinitely harder for the data to serve its purpose.
At the end of the movie, Snowden makes the decision to reveal the information, valuing the people’s need for privacy over the government’s desire for surveillance, and it’s hard to know if this was the right decision or not. A result of this action is that the government will have a harder time doing anything immoral, now that the country knows some of what they have done. However, at the same time, any potential terrorists will undoubtedly be much more careful, as they now know the government is listening. Snowden helped to give the people their privacy back, but in the process, he broke the first rule of combat – he revealed the government’s position on information privacy.
References:
1: Michael J. Quinn, “Information Privacy” in Ethics for the Information Age, 7th ed. Pearson, 2016, ch. 5