We live in pretty interesting times . The population’s perceptions have shifted. What was a big “no-no” only decades ago is today’s “sure why not”. The phrase: “Only in America” comes to mind. The racial equality is now higher than ever and the same applies to women in work places.

Technology has a big part in this evolution also. Things like the internet and extremely large databases have contributed in a very positive way to the improvement of our everyday lives. Formerly we were forced to sift through tons of paper to find a record. Now the desired information is 2 clicks away. Another advantage is that back ups are made and stored in different locations. Before, if a paper was destroyed it was the end.

But this is where things get complicated. Hackers might attempt to break into these archives from the comfort of their own home. It makes our personal information vulnerable to rogue attacks. Because where there is a lock there will always be a key.

It doesn’t mean that bad guys should dictate how we access and store the information. Database access is still very convenient even for regular people like you and me. Let’s take Reverse telephone number lookup as an example.

You can run a reverse phone lookup on a number to find out who the owner is. It has a lot of useful applications in our everyday lives. If one received a phone call from a toll free number he or she can use a reverse lookup to discover the company’s name. Or a person can run a reverse cell phone lookup to find out who is harassing him over the phone.

As good as it sounds, this instrument can do a lot of harm if it falls in the hands of the wrong people.

A sexual predator also knows how to use reverse lookups. An unsuspecting individual might share the phone number with a stranger who will use it for all the wrong reasons.

This might force us to sacrifice our conveniences for the sake of safety. Should we dictate what we can and cannot use because of a small percentage of evil doers?

In my view it is up to the people to decide what information should be collected and disclosed. Our expressions of freedom are like small grains which are easy to lose but hard to get back. Imagine waking up one day to a world where privacy is a secondary notion. If ever that level of privacy violation is reached it would be extremely hard to change anything. Even the smallest representative (on the municipal level) should be listened to at the highest of levels in order to prevent this from happening.