Wednesday 12 August 2015

Is Privacy An Ethical Or Fundamental Right?



Privacy is synonymous with humanity, goodness, character, decency, ethics and many more words, both in terms of meaning and essence. Although, it is not a fundamental or constitutional right in our country, but it is an anvil to shape almost every fundamental right, an imperative ingredient which can never be ignored while considering the human rights and freedom. To disclose one's personal life in the public using a variety of mediums - human or electronic is a disgraceful act which bitterly affects dignity and life a person. Therefore, privacy is rather a fundamental tool to protect the fundamental rights.

From family life to business engagements, there can be many incidences where people can intrude and disturb one's privacy. And, in the age of communication and social media people are more vulnerable to privacy attacks on social media. Crimes such as e-mail hacking, identity theft, data theft, counterfeiting, morphing, blackmailing and even terrorist attacks are directly or indirectly associated with the violation of privacy policies or better to say ethics.  In many recent cases a victim went through such an emotional shock that she/he compelled to make suicide attempts.

Privacy also play a pivotal role in sacred relationship between husband and the wife, too much curiosity about one's personal life spoils mutual trust, ruin relationships and even results in the disintegration of a family. If your partner is unwilling to disclose her/his past, then don't insist much. Focus on the present and the future, past has been passed forever and it will never come back. According to Charles Fried, "Privacy is necessarily related to ends and relations of the most fundamental sort: respect, love, friendship and trust, without privacy they are simply inconceivable." 

Being human, we cannot force any to share his/her personal issues, what one's like or dislike, love or hate, favour or disfavour is of no use to us, until and unless his actions or policies going to affect us. Otherwise, it is the choice of an individual that whether a person is interested to reveal his/her views or not. In fact, things depend on mutual understanding, for those whom we trust, unveil every aspect of our life very easily and comfortably, but people who are just familiar with us can never become our confidante. Hence, we should keep ourselves away from the personal life of other people because dignity is the part of humanity.