Privacy refers to a basic human right that gives autonomy and protects human dignity from any infringement caused by an individual, organized individuals, an organization, or even a government organization.
The early years of privacy possibly began with the British Common Law in early 19th century that initially talked about the physical presence in life and property. Privacy gained a proper shape with the invention of mobile phones in the 20th century while the simultaneous arrival of the internet was overwhelmingly welcomed by people for cheap and fast communication facilities.
In the 20th century, the internet’s child -- social media -- was born and subsequently gained popularity among people all over the world. Social media was praised for giving people freedom to communicate with people from other parts of the world, creating awareness in social and political endeavours, and serving many other purposes at very little cost.
While the actual number of social media platforms cannot be estimated, thanks to the giant social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others, the total users of social media now stand at about 2.5 billion -- according to statista.com.
And the figure is increasing every day under circumstances where millions of people are experiencing privacy breaches by stalkers, hackers, and cyber criminals on social media platforms. In fact, in recent years, we have also seen how social networks have also been involved in various heinous activities as they were consciously selling the data of their users to other organizations
Crimes using the social media
In England, Wales, and Scotland, social media related crimes have increased up to 780% in between 2008 to 2012, according to a news report published by the Guardian.
In the US, cyber-crime is also on the rise. In 2017, more than 143 million Americans were affected by cyber-crime, according to the Norton Cyber Security Insights Report.
At the latest, we know about the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scam, which made the privacy issue more visible. The incident threatened the private data of more than 50 million Facebook users and made them available to Cambridge Analytica -- a political data firm hired by President Trump’s 2016 election campaign that gained access to private information of millions of Facebook users, according to a New York Times news report.
The legal approach
Since the incident, regulators have intensified scrutiny of Facebook’s privacy practices and the US’s Federal Trade Commission is planning a multi-billion-dollar fine against for violating a 2011 privacy consent decree.
According to trial lawyer Mark Sableman, in one early social media privacy case involving MySpace, a court noted: “Cynthia’s affirmative act made her article available to any person with a computer and thus opened it to the public eye. Under these circumstances, no reasonable person would have had an expectation of privacy regarding the published material.”
In a recent Connecticut case, for example, judges asked whether Facebook posts counted as public. They also asked experts to explain the mysterious workings of Facebook.
As the age of the social media exposes us against our will and infringes upon our privacies, the authorities around the world must be more vigilant to safeguard the rights of the users.
Ahmed Shatil Alam is a Staff Reporter at Dhaka Tribune.
