Quite a few people don’t want everyone to know their whole private self, whether that will be their sexuality, parts of their personality or even their personal information. Privacy helps individuals maintain their autonomy and individuality; people define themselves by exercising power over information about them. Even if privacy is not in itself a fundamental right, it is necessary to be able to protect other fundamental rights we have.
Constantly there are issues surrounding privacy being breached by companies and even other human beings. It doesn't always have to be computer hackers stealing your information off of your Twitter, it can be people you meet every day that want you to reveal more than you are comfortable. We should be in control of what certain individuals know about us and not have fear of random strangers turning up at our door.
Celebrities struggle with keeping a lot of their personal life to themselves as they are constantly in the media spot light as well as their own fans even pressuring them to reveal more than they desire. Such examples include private nude photos of people such as Hunger Games actress Jennifer Lawrence and child star Dylan Sprouse being publicly released without their consent. Most recently Canadian actress Natasha Negovanlis, known for her role as leather trouser wearing lesbian vampire on the Vervegirl web series Carmilla, has recently been dealing with a fan finding her home address and another stalking her friends and families Facebook accounts looking for pictures of her. Below is parts of the Tumblr post she uploaded explaining the stalking situation. The full post cannot be found on the site anymore.
‘Do not be alarmed, they are not currently stalking me at work. What they are doing however , is virtually stalking all my friends and employers from both my past and present – perhaps in order to be the first person to post photos of me that my fans haven’t seen yet?...
And yes, it is a bit weird for me to see photos from my past spread on the internet – especially since I don’t remember some of them being taken, and some from deeply personal events...
The only sad part form me is that it invades the privacy of the people I know and care about...and now there are pictures of them all over Tumblr for thousands to see...’
I personally do not understand how certain people feel the right to know everything about a person and even go to the extent to stalk. They justify it by believing because they are celebrities they should be telling them, this is of course completely ridiculous. No one should feel pressured to releasing more of their private life than they believe is acceptable whether they are famous or not. Living in a world driven by social media has made it so easy to find personal information about anyone. Stalking someone on the internet is no different than following them in the street; it is only considered less creepy because you can’t actually see them. This cannot be seen as tolerable, it is still essentially stalking.
I’m not saying don’t use any social media because they will all use your information against you. I am an avid Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram and general internet user that enjoys going on these sites daily. In our current generation it is common for most of us to use these sites however we must still be safe when knowing how much is suitable for the whole world to have at a push of a button. In digital era, privacy must be a priority. Historically, privacy was almost implicit, because it was hard to find and gather information. But in the digital world, whether its satellites or just what you click on, we need to have more explicit rules. Privacy is not an option and it shouldn't be the price we accept for just getting on the internet.
Though everyone’s privacy should be equally respected and acknowledge this however isn't the case. It makes me frustrated when some people believe they have a right to know personal information when the truth is, if someone doesn't tell you it, you don’t need to know! So always know your limits, never reveal more than you are comfortable with and just stay safe.
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