Privacy a Right or Responsibility?

So I am posed with this question:

Is privacy a right or a responsibility?

In the west we strive to build our own little kingdoms, we erect our fences, install our security systems, ensure we deadlock our door's and essentially make our lives more private, protected and disconnected than any other period in history. Yet isn't it ironic that in these same houses we connect straight into a network more public than any environment we have encountered in the physical realm, a network which can multiply our information faster than a virus, potentially sharing it with an audience we may never have intended.

What fence do we build around the information we share in our networked community? How do we padlock our digital identity? What security system do we entrust to ensure that more sinister net users can't steal our virtual embodiment? The reality is that most of us on facebook don't think twice about clicking 'accept' to invitations from 'friends' that we don't really know as traditional friends in the true sense of the word, the majority of online users often trust the website and never read the screeds of terms and conditions when signing up online, we click the little box which says 'I agree to these terms and conditions'. But what are we agreeing to, who are we connecting with, and perhaps more importantly who is watching us?

The problem we have is a breakdown from reality to virtuality. In reality we accept that privacy is actually a personal responsibility, which leads to a right. We don't open our homes, our worlds and our personal matters up to the world, yet online people feel compelled to... why?

Disconnect.

When we spend so much time online we lose reality of the potential audience we can reach through our online activity, and are oblivious to the potential surveillance over us. We forget we are essentially creating a digital passport which we will carry for life, one which can reveal all sorts of information about us.

Both articles we had to read this week, the first by Samantha MacConnell, 'Don't overestimate privacy of online information' and Beware: the Internet could own your future by Husna Najand, raised some interesting points about privacy. Najand's article concerned me the most as it highlighted the abuse of power that capitalist corporations such as Facebook have over people. The ability for them to change their terms of service contract to a stance which saw them ultimately owning all the information of their users online is a grave concern for some, and a major abuse of power. For many users this may not be much of a concern as MacConnell points out, 'Of course, if you do not have photographs or information posted that could be incriminating, there probably is no need to worry.' But the following short clip from The Wall shows why we all need to have some concern...

Are you taking the responsibility to protect your privacy?