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Privacy In The Age Of Technology Summary

Decent Essays

Jill Lepore the author of the article “The Prism: Privacy in the Age of Technology” examines the concept of privacy in a world that has changed significantly from the 1800s. Lepore asserts that an age of publicity was ushered into society due to the shift from a world shrouded in secrecy to one inundated with transparency. Regardless, there have always been cases where privacy has been violated.
In the 1800s, Mazzini was sentenced to death when British spies intercepted letters he had been receiving regarding revolutions in Italy. Although a petition had been filed to discover whether the British had been reading through Mazzini’s letters, the British would not disclose. This secrecy allowed the government to conceal its actions. Soon, however, people began to understand that “secrecy is an instrument of conspiracy” (Lepore, 4). This secrecy means that the actions of the government are not made public, and as such people do not feel a sense of responsibility for their actions. …show more content…

This, however, only led to more violations of privacy. According to Bentham, publicity had the power to “educate the public… [and] improve the nature of political conversation” (Lepore, 4). The means by which this was accomplished was entirely through the media and technology. Although the media was only made to enlighten the general public, it overstepped its boundaries and often infringed on people’s personal space. For instance, when many articles were published in the newspapers spreading rumors about the Warren-Bayard family, Samuel Warren felt that the media had encroached on his family’s privacy. Therefore, forming a society on the notion of publicity has led the media to feel justified to invade other people’s

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