When the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution and granted the people of the United States a list of unalienable rights, they forgot, or perhaps deliberately excluded, one specific right: privacy. According to Milan Kundera, author of Betrayed Testaments, privacy is a fundamental human right and denying this right would be a crime. Kundera also said people are more likely to share heretical ideas and speak in outrageous ways in the privacy of their homes and among their friends. Kundera concluded that privacy is a curtain that protects personal life from public life and, therefore, privacy should be respected. Overall, protecting privacy is an important issue, but there are some circumstances in which limiting privacy could make our daily lives easier and promote security. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The promise of privacy is critical to establishing trust between doctors and patients, as well as between therapists and clients. Since privacy is recognized as a right of all human beings, violating patient confidentiality codes can lead to serious legal problems for healthcare providers. In fact, privacy is so important that some individuals pay therapists and shrinks to listen to their family and personal problems rather than risk confiding in close friends who have no legal obligation to keep their secrets. Privacy equals dignity, and dignity is a right rather than a privilege. Since few people would still have an intact reputation once their darkest secrets were revealed to the public, the concept of privacy exists to protect people from the potential backlash of their personal decisions. Rules protecting patient confidentiality in some professions exist to support Kundera's idea that personal lives should not be tampered with. However, there are situations that warrant a potential invasion of privacy. Many people are willing to give up some aspects of their privacy to make their lives easier. People are aware that companies collect detailed information about potential consumers through their Internet searches and purchases. These companies sell this consumer data to marketers who attempt to target shoppers based on everything from their interests and needs to their income and clothing size. Although opposition to this invasion of privacy has grown, the vast majority of people are unwilling to sacrifice the usefulness of the Internet. Especially in times when the United States faces imminent danger or when it feels threatened, people's privacy may be compromised for the sake of national security. For example, if all actions were properly enacted, the government could take away some privacy from the American people. However, as demonstrated by the outrage following Edward Snowden's revelation of the National Security Association's attempt to spy on people's phone calls and Internet communications, one can conclude that privacy is indeed a precious right for Americans. Under the guise of the Patriot Act, which helps strengthen national security, the NSA monitored international calls made to or from the United States and collected personal information they should not have had access to. Many Americans supported Kundera's statement expressing anger at the invasion of privacy, feeling as if the government had deprived them of their basic rights. Furthermore, greater transparency on the part.
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