Privacy and Digital Privacy
This essay will focus on the privacy, digital privacy will show lights on how the alive and deceased persons can be protected on the digital platform, examples have been provided to show the difference of legislation with respect to deceased persons between Australia and the US. This essay will grandstand how to own ownership of digital assets in a safe and secure manner by a Will.
Privacy is the basic right required for everyone to protect self-dignity of individuals, the rights also signify the base on which the human rights are built upon (Glennon, 2014). Privacy creates a boundary where the user should limit themselves and should abide by the rules so that one’s privacy remains intact.
Digital privacy is basically connected to the digital media and digital media and cloud computing. The intruders attack the computer system and threaten the authenticity and privacy of one’s system (Ferrante, 2013). The use of cryptographic software assists in protecting the privacy of the system.
The digital privacy law of Australia consists of the following parameters-the management of the personal data that must have a privacy policy, the user should use an alias name for where there is a chance or capability, the accumulation of solicited data which involves the personal data must be secured and unsolicited data involving the notice which is received from the external sources must be taken care of (Hopkins, Lipin & Whitham, 2014). The principle includes the procedures by which the data can be handled, used or eventually putting an end to the activities regarding the personal data. The principle also includes the right to access the correct personal data and also includes the modification of the personal data.
The digital assets or the materials can be at risks and cyber criminals can exploit t hose data for their benefits. The malware, virus and the worms are the matter of concerns. The virus generally replicates by the intruders and spread from system to system via one computer file to another computer file. The worms are self-replicant and they spread through the various computer system and they do not require any other plugins or software or applications to spread the fatal effect. A program affected by Trojans look like one program when executed looks another. Spyware or adware is another one that is also vulnerable. The digital materials can be hacked by the intruders and this procedure is known as the social engineering. The Denial of Service attack associates the hijacking of one’s system and disallow the owners to use their own system (Haworth, 2013). In this way, the data can be robbed of. Another concerning issue is the cloud technology, with the help of cloud service one can store important files and data in the store, the cloud technology can be vulnerable and put to risks if the network is poorly secured.
Digital Privacy in Australia
The digital privacy can be secured by the following means. The hardware and software applied firewalls can prevent the unauthorised access and thus allow the authorised ports, protocols and applications access. The antimalware software can secure the systems’ contents by mitigating the virus and worms’ effects. The access points of the wireless equipment must be secured to get flawless internet security services. Here the security scanning tools can assist any unauthorised access to the system (Kundi et al., 2014). The network components should be properly authenticated and authorised that means the password files must be checked and verified whether it is strong enough or not.
Digital legacy is the procedure to protect the digital materials from the vulnerabilities and the risks. The digital files include files, images, videos, online accounts, e-wallets. The business organisations run their business organisations online, deliver emails online, they also conduct their business activities in the cloud, so it is important to prepare a will for all the digital assets (Banta, 2014). The assets provide a sort of privacy as well; it helps when he accounts gets frozen or gets attacked by malware.
The online social media platforms including Google+ and Facebook must use HTTPS to secure their website, they must provide two-way verification facilities to the customers, should provide the users with answering the security answers. On the other hand, the user will have to take initiative, the user must utilise a strong password to ensure the security, the user should set different passwords for different social media platforms, the user must be selective of their friends and should not send friend requests to random users, they must click the website links with cautions, they must be careful about the file they want to share via these sites, again the users should not share the sensitive information, the users should read the privacy policies of the respective companies and must abide by those policies. In case of a deceased person, the user’s profile must be transformed to the memorial, so that everyone can be aware of that the person is dead (Edwards & Harbinja, 2013). The social media websites should not send messages regarding the dead persons like ‘happy birthday’ and the social media sites should develop their site keeping in mind the memorial section. The relatives and the closed ones should proactively send information of the death of the user to the social media sites so that they can start taking actions immediately (Yeager, 2017). Further, the social media sites contain the personal sensitive information of the website for this reason for investigation purposes the sites like Facebook or Google Australia should step forward and support the investigation purpose.
Issues of concern around digital materials
A British soldier died named Edward Baxter died in the year 2012 in the month of October. He was killed in an insider attack in Afghanistan (What happens to your online accounts after you die?, 2017). His sister Emily showed proof of his death and turned his Facebook profile page into a memorial, so everyone can know all about him. Besides Facebook Edward had Google and Apple Account, his sister wants to gain access to the Gmail account but Google refused that, similarly, Google Australia do not want to disclose or reveal the dead person’s information. In the US, Google can be forced to reveal the information at need, Google Australia should follow this. According to the lawyers of Australia, this sensitive information should provide some sort of support and assistance, due to lack of this data the lawyer faces the issues to solve critical cases, they face a dilemma where they should go, where they will get the right information that will conclude the case. If a person died the close relatives of him or her left with no clue on how they can solve the case. Australian teenager Eric Rash died after committing suicide but his parents do not know why he commits suicide, his parents have no clue (Virginia family, 2017). He had a Facebook account and his parents think that the answer lies inside the Facebook. He could have a girlfriend, could have been in trouble, could get bad marks and all this information can be accessed from Facebook, but Facebook is not ready to reveal all these data. Therefore, the lawyers along with Eric’s parents are voting for changing the law.
The ownership of digital property can be secured by making a list of the property they want to secure, the username and the passwords and the security questions must be remembered, the users must abide by all the rules and regulations and should follow this, just made a proper setting of the email accounts, if any disruption occurs they themselves will be responsible for their actions (Weber & Staiger, 2017). The users must make a clear idea of the data upon which they want to make a Will and the Will must not contain any username or password, should review the agreements again and again. The user must ensure on the terms they want to bind themselves in. In this way, by making a secure Will one can ensure ownership of the digital property.
Ensuring Digital Privacy
The digital Wills assist the users to manage the estate and it also helps while speaking to a legal advisor or lawyer. That digital Will can be fruitful later at the time of need or at the time of his or her death for three benefits of his or her closed ones (Johnson & Seelye, 2017). Thus, of course, digital estate concept can help the users in the long run.
It can be concluded from the above discourse that the social media websites and the tech giants should provide the details of the dead person as this sometimes help in legal cases, sometimes help in monetary gain. The data may contain the sensitive data that can help the closed ones and the relatives. The essay also highlighted the digital privacy concept, the issues associated with the digital assets. The procedures have been showcased on how the digital assets can be securely owned by making a Will.
References
Banta, N. M. (2014). Inherit the Cloud: The Role of Private Contracts in Distributing or Deleting Digital Assets at Death.
Edwards, L., & Harbinja, E. (2013). “What Happens to My Facebook Profile When I Die?”: Legal Issues Around Transmission of Digital Assets on Death. In Digital Legacy and Interaction (pp. 115-144). Springer International Publishing.
Ferrante, R. E. (2013). The Relationship between Digital Assets and Their Transference at Death: It’s Complicated. Loy. J. Pub. Int. L., 15, 37.
Glennon, M. D. (2014). A Call to Action: Why the Connecticut Legislature Should Solve the Digital Asset Dilemma. Quinnipiac Prob. LJ, 28, 48.
Haworth, S. D. (2013). Laying Your Online Self to Rest: Evaluating the Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act. U. Miami L. Rev., 68, 535.
Hopkins, J. P., Lipin, I. A., & Whitham, J. (2014). The importance of digital asset succession planning for small businesses.
Johnson, E., & Seelye, M. (2017). Reclaiming Your Digital Privacy: An Interactive Workshop.
Kundi, G. M., Nawaz, A., Akhtar, R., & MPhil Student, I. E. R. (2014). Digital revolution, cyber-crimes and cyber legislation: A challenge to governments in developing countries. Journal of Information Engineering and Applications, 4(4), 61-71.
Virginia family, seeking clues to son’s suicide, wants easier access to Facebook. (2017). Washington Post. Retrieved 8 September 2017, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/va-politics/virginia-family-seeking-clues-to-sons-suicide-wants-easier-access-to-facebook/2013/02/17/e1fc728a-7935-11e2-82e8-61a46c2cde3d_story.html
Weber, R. H., & Staiger, D. (2017). Digital privacy in a media orientated world. International Journal of Public Law and Policy, 6(1), 21-38.
What happens to your online accounts after you die?. (2017). Abc.net.au. Retrieved 8 September 2017, from https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/content/2014/s4158473.htm
Yeager, D. B. (2017). Certain Certiorari: The Digital Privacy Rights of Probationers.
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