Privacy Rights and the Internet

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that, although a prisoner has limited rights, there are certain protections provided to prisoners under the law, which brings up questions in terms of the rights and protections offered prisoners with regards to their personal privacy and information, which can be easily found on the internet. The author points out that, at present, there are no laws regarding internet privacy and reviews the United States' long history of struggling with privacy issues using the cases "Roe V. Wade" (1977), "Olmstead vs. United States 277 U.S. 438" (1928) and "Katz vs. United States, 389 U.S. 347" (1967). The paper states that, because there currently are no laws concerning privacy on the internet, there should be no problem with using VeriSign as a company to introduce e-commerce to the inmates as this company's policy considers the protection of an individual's privacy of the utmost importance.

From the Paper:

"There are also more complex searches that a person can perform on the internet. For a fee, several companies will offer a complete profile of a person. For example, a company called, US Search, will find anybody and offers services such as background checks, locators, criminal search, sex offender search, and department of corrections search. They also offer other information like marriage and divorce certificates. There are many of these sites. They work by compiling databases, similar to the ones that law enforcement uses to find people by social security number or license number. Another site compiles scientific data as well. Abika.com offers background searches, psychological profiles, DNA profiling, etc. In short, if it is part of the public record, it can be compiled in a database for businesses to sell."

More papers on Privacy Rights and the Internet:

• Research Paper # 2636 : "Privacy and the Internet"
• Essay # 66442 : "Ethics, Copyright Laws and the Internet"
• Essay # 73624 : "Email Privacy Rights"

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