Art of Privacy

written by Ikhwan Jamaludin (privacy)

Everyone owns privacy and we know it we have the right of privacy. For me, privacy is a natural right that needs a protection. It looks like same with copyright that also needs a protection, but slightly different in the way we own it and protect it. Reflect to the tragedy of September 11, Bush and his legacy obviously blaming the accident came from terrorist which come from the Middle East country. What happen after they blame, are they investigating something to get a proof that the disaster happened come from Iraq or Afghanistan? The answer is none. But, there are a lot of efforts from them to prove it and they tried to track the terrorists which involve in making the tragedy of September 11 became a reality. How they tracking them? This matter will be analyzed as a violation of human rights. Let take one example from the reading we have made on page 303 and 304 in "The Shock Doctrine" written by Naomi Klein when she mentioned

As an exuberant article in the business magazine Red Herring explained one such program "tracks terrorists by figuring out if a name spelled a hundred different ways matches a name in a homeland security database. Take the name Mohammad. The software contains hundreds of possible spellings for the name, and it can search terabytes of data in a second. (The Shock Doctrine, pg 303)

It is amazing software and I salute to the person who invented the program. But, can you think, is it possible to find the terrorist through that way? There are thousands of people out there where they use Mohammad as their name and even my name also use Mohammad as my first name. So, does it means, I also can be charged as a terrorist? What a ridiculous. It is so unfair or even worse. If they do charge me, and peril me and my family, they have violated my privacy. So, there is no freedom in this 'Land of Free'. It just like, they promote freedom but they are the one who not practice it. If they do make a mistake arresting people, so they actually have violated the right of privacy. Naomi Klein also claimed this problem is also some sort of violating privacy when she responds to 'arresting of wrong person':

This potential of error is where the incompetence and greed that have been hallmark of the Bush years, from Iraq to New Orleans, becomes harrowing. One false ID coming out of any these electronic fishing expeditions is enough for an apolitical family man, who sort of looks like someone whose name sort of sounds like his (at least to someone with no knowledge of Arabic or Muslim culture), to be flagged as a potential terrorist. (The Shock Doctrine, pg 303 and 304).

So, when we talk about privacy, we actually talk about the relationship to the person with people surrounding him like his sisters, brothers, families, friends and others. This is natural right of humanity that has to be protected in very unique art of protection to preserve the right of the privacy of the person in real world.