08/12/2024
๐พ๐๐๐๐๐ | ๐๐ฟ๐ถ๐บ๐ฒ ๐ท๐๐๐๐ถ๐ณ๐ถ๐ฒ๐ฑ ๐ถ๐ป ๐ฎ ๐บ๐ผ๐ฑ๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ป ๐๐ถ๐บ๐ฒ
By: Pamela Marie Reduble
The rise of the digital age has launched a troubling trend: justifying privacy violations using a sense of moral superiority and sympathy. Although seeing evidently that this is a crime punishable by law, netizens justify actions like disclosing private text conversations over the cause of emotional distress or anger to seek sympathy from the public.
What's more concerning is that this trend is becoming more prevalent in the celebrity industry. Throughout the years, people learned that celebrities are also people who have a right to privacy that people must acknowledge and respect. However, this is somehow forgotten once public figures act beyond the standards and principles of the public.
Republic Act No. 10173, also known as the Data Privacy Act of 2012, was enacted with the means of ensuring that personal information, which refers to any information that can be used to identify an individual directly or indirectly (defined in Section 3), is protected and handled properly.
In Section 25 of the DPA, the unauthorized processing of personal information and sensitive personal information (which includes the sexual life of the data subject, defined in Section 3 (l)) is penalized by imprisonment and a fine. Processing is defined in Section 3 (j) as any or any set of operations performed upon personal information.
Some people are entitled to othersโ personal informationโespecially about celebritiesโ lives. They believe that they have the right to expose the personal data of the people who did (them) wrong. Not to invalidate peopleโs feelings, but to recognize that there is a law made to protect people's privacy: emotional distress and self-entitlement should not be a free pass to violate that law.
As I first stated, people tolerate actions like violation of privacy because they believe that this is only โgetting evenโ when, in fact, itโs not. Itโs committing a crime. Itโs putting people at risk for their lives, destroying their dignity, reputation, and career in such an unnecessary way. And with this, we blur the line between seeking justice and seeking revenge.
If we start to accept the idea that these factors are valid reasons to disregard laws and ethical boundaries, we are only creating a society for ourselves where everyone is entitled to take matters into their own hands and where respect for oneโs privacy is an optional thing to do.
The law is not just a set of rules to follow when it's convenient; it is in place to maintain equity, safeguard individual liberties, and guarantee that justice is administered consistently. The foundation of a just society is undermined when people choose to follow the law only when it is convenient. Regardless of the situation or sentiments involved, upholding the law and protecting privacy ought to be unassailable principles.
As individuals in this society, let us learn to instill respect for each otherโs rights. If you ever come to a point where you are tempted to follow the example of these people, think to yourself that you donโt have to be a villain. Itโs not just the law; itโs common sense. People's private and personal life is not your story to tell others, no matter how much they hurt you.
Let us be accountable for our actions. For there is a danger when we completely ignore the law. Let us commit to a community where privacy is honored and pain is addressed with empathy, not exploitation.
Layout by: Jellian Zuniga
