Americans Concerned About Privacy, Essay Example

Introduction

According to a survey carried out by Jack (34), most Americans do not do much to protect their privacy. The study found 84% of users saying they carefully guarded their information online but when tested 89% of them actually gave away information online. Some openly admitted that they were concerned about privacy and they would talk about it a lot; but when it came down to performing any action, they felt it was just too much of a hassle. However, in some social environments privacy is respected (Jack 35). Americans usually take obvious measures to enforce privacy, in the hope that those measures will inspire respect. But they appear not to adequately protect their private information. They trust that the information will be kept confident and that it will be used appropriately (Jack 36).

Koy (67) found out that Americans place high value on privacy. Each American child will have his or her own bedroom. This is assumed as a place to be alone. They even assume people have private thoughts that they never share with anyone (Koy 69). America has confidentiality rules bound on doctors, lawyers, psychiatrist and others to prevent personal situation from being known publicly. Their houses, yards and offices are seen so open and inviting yet in the American mind there are boundaries other people are not supposed to cross. Though American privacy to some extent is difficult to understand, certain assumptions they make can tell how far they consider privacy (Koy, 69).

What Americans Seem to Assume

• Openness: Americans consider themselves open and direct in dealings with other people (Jack 44). They assume that disagreements are best settled by means of forthright discussions. Feelings and requests ought to be plainly expressed. In areas they consider excessively personal or sensitive or want to say no to a request, they will decline to do so not to hurt the feeling of the one who made the request. Americans do not mask their emotional response (Koy 72). To them, being honest is more important than preserving harmony in interpersonal relationship.

Americans seem to be impatient with people who take long turns. They admire consciousness or getting to the point (Koy 79). However they don’t consider religion and politics to be appropriate topics for informal discussions. Financial matters are considered personal and usually outside the bounds of acceptable topics of discussion. Though Americans from the west are often outspoken, open and accept new ideas but those from East are more reserved by nature and unwilling to yield to change quickly (Jack 48).

• Individualism: When Americans talk, they like to have a lot of space between themselves and their conversational partners (Jack 52). This is perfectly normal and demonstrates the Americans altitude towards privacy. This is something tat you notice anywhere, at work and at home. Many Americans have computers with access to internet in their homes. Some choose to stay with you while they are using their computer. You will undoubtedly spend time comparing notes on what your experiences have been on various issues (Jack 55).

However most Americans perceive themselves as separate individuals and assume that everyone else in the world is too (Koy 82). When they encounter a person from abroad who seems excessively concerned about the opinions of parents they assume the person feels trapped or is weak, indecisive or overly dependent. They assume all people must resent being in situations where they are not free to make up their own minds. Americans prefer an atmosphere of freedom where neither the government nor any external force or agency dictates what an individual does (Koy 88). For them freedom has strong positive connotations.

• Culture and Behavior: Americans naturally consider themselves as being in competition with others, which pervades the society. They admire people who stand out of the crowd; do things first, longer and the best (Mary 91). They admire people who overcome adverse situations and they can openly talk about the situation. To them the individual is just passing an important message for future reference. Most Americans do not display degree of respect for their parents and they are not ashamed about it even when it shows in public. The reason behind this is that they consider being born to a particular parent was a form of accident and the parents performed their duty to them when they were young, when they reach maturity the child-parent bond is in most cases loosened or broken (Mary 93).
• Competition: Americans have a sense of competitiveness (Mary 95). It is obvious in schools and extracurricular activities for children, where games and contest are assumed to be beneficial and desirable. People who are competing with others are essentially alone (Mary 96), they try to maintain their superiority and implicitly while they are separated from others. For this reason to some extent Americans can be considered to have some privacy. They seem to have difficulty in understanding people who always want to be with other persons (Mary 99). They regard them as weak and dependent.
•   Equality: Americans are generally quite uncomfortable with people who treat them with obvious difference. They dislike being the subject of open display of respect (Lance 28). They assume everyone no matter how unfortunate deserve some basic level of respectful treatment. This explains their informal behavior in their relationship with other people. People from societies where general behavior is more formal are struck by the informality of Americans speech, dress and body language (Lance 32). The superficial friendliness for which Americans are known for is related for their informal egalitarian approach to other people which is assumed as being less on their privacy.

These and other assumptions that Americans make seem to support their lack of concern for private maters and to some extent undermine their approach of privacy. Lack of comprehensive regulation or protection against violation of privacy, is a threat to freedom that underlie the right to privacy (Lance 38). American legal culture and tradition demonstrates deference to market place over market regulation. This free-market approach has left gaping holes in privacy protection in U S law. Technological changes and fears of terrorism have engraved this problem even more. Thus the freedom at the market place is an expense of freedoms of privacy to American citizens. The consequence has been abuse of privacy by these freedoms.

Most of the adult Americans who go online at home don’t understand private policies as Aron (89) found out. They seem to have no clue about data flow; the invisibility, cutting edge technique whereby online organizations extract, manipulate, append, profile and share information about tem. Most people believe that websites cannot share information about tem with other websites or other companies (Aron 92). Despite the strong concern for online information privacy most people seem less concerned and have never searched for information on how to protect their information online. This fact raise questions about the usefulness of educating American consumers on the tools needed to protect their online information.

Majority of Americans will freely share online their health information, personal financial information, personally identifiable information from themselves to the children. The companies use this information for their business purposes without their knowledge or consent (Aron 101). They can take, utilize and share personally identifiable information to create, package and sell detailed profiles of people whose names they don’t know but whose interest and lifestyle they feel can infer from their web-surfing activities. Companies extend their knowledge to purchasing their information to send targeted editorial mater or advertise to consumers.

Conclusion

American adults who use internet at home then can know they don’t have the knowledge to control their information and they are not sure weather major entities who have that knowledge will act in the interest of consumers. It therefore makes sense when offered with policy choices our Americans overwhelmingly respondents should be agree with solutions that will allow them to straightforwardly know what is going on. They should strongly support regulations that force more disclosure from online entities to control information about them.

Nevertheless, it is upon Americans themselves to change the overwhelming view the world bestow on them as people who care less about their privacy. The way they talk, dress and behave is up to them to communicate their intentions to the whole world. As much as they may want to communicate freely with everyone regardless of their social class, it best to be known up to how far they can unearth their privacy.                   .

Works Cited

Hegemon, Lance American Value 3^rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007, pp 28-38

Johnson, Jack The Issue of Privacy policies and Data Flow in the Web 4^th ed. New York: Yeshiva University Press, 2006, pp 34-55

Masquis, Koy Are Americans Concerned About Privacy? 1^st ed. New Haven: Yale University Pess, 2005, pp 72-88

Murrawhip, Aron Marketing Trust and New Media World 2^nd ed. London: Jonh Hopkins University Press, pp 89-101

Sherry, Mary Americans and Privacy  3^rd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp 91-99