1. Give an explanation, with examples and/or analogies, to describe what it mean
ID: 3733489 • Letter: 1
Question
1. Give an explanation, with examples and/or analogies, to describe what it means for privacy to be a negative right (liberty). Do the same for privacy as a positive right (claim right). (See Section 1.4.2 for explanations of negative and positive rights. (copied below)) Which kind of right, if either, seems more appropriate for privacy? Why?
1.4.2
"Negative rights, or liberties, are rights to act without interference. The only obligation negative rights impose on other people is that they may not prevent you from acting. These rights include the right to life (in the sense that no one may kill you), the right to be free from assault, the right to use your property, and the right to use your labor, skills, and mind to create goods and services and to trade with other people in voluntary exchanges. The rights to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” described in the U.S. Declaration of Independence are liberties, or negative rights. Freedom of speech and religion, as guaranteed in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, are negative rights: the government may not interfere with you, jail you, or kill you because of what you say or what your religious beliefs are. The right to work, as a liberty, or negative right, means that no one may prohibit you from working or, for example, punish you for working without getting a government permit. The (negative) right to access the Internet is so obvious in free countries that we do not even think of it; however, authoritarian governments restrict or deny it.
Claim rights, or positive rights, impose an obligation on some people to provide certain things for others. A positive right to a job means that someone must hire you regardless of whether anyone voluntarily chooses to do so, or that it is obligatory for the government to set up job programs for people who are out of work. A positive right to life means that some people are obligated to pay for food or medical care for others who cannot pay for them. When we interpret freedom of speech as a claim right, or positive right, it means that we may require owners of shopping malls, radio stations, and online services to provide space or time for content they do not wish to include. Access to the Internet, as a claim right, could require such things as taxes to provide subsidized access for poor people or foreign aid to provide access in poor countries. The last example suggests the following question: How far does the obligation to provide a positive right extend? Also, when thinking about what might be a positive, or claim, right, it is helpful to consider whether something should be a claim right if it depends on achieving a certain level of societal wealth or a certain level of technology. For example, if telephone service is a positive right now, was it a positive right in 1900 when fewer than 15% of households had a telephone?23 If access to the Internet is a positive right now, was it a positive right in the 1800s?"
Explanation / Answer
Privacy means that whatever an individual thinks that should not be shared with others except for very few close ones, in some cases with no one; he/she has the right to keep it secret. No one can question or force to disclose that.
Negative right (liberty) is more appropriate with privacy as liberty of expression, action or speech makes sure the individual has the full freedom to decide whether to make an information private or public. He/she is free to decide their own faith. For example, a person wins a lottery, but he decides not to tell anyone in the fear if anyone envy’s him. So has he has liberty to choose his actions he decided to keep this information private. Also he instructed the lottery inspector not to disclose it to anyone. Liberty to keep anything private or public is the key analogy that is to be followed here.
Positive right (claim right) acts opposite to privacy. As anyone can claim a right on someone else’s information. For example if the man wins the lottery, but the lottery inspector told as he is from the lottery company he has rights on this information and claims that he has to disclose it to his relatives for compliance perspective.
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