Privacy and Invisibility Online: How They Differ. Right or Privilege?

We are living in an age where we are all being watched. With the advent of social media, it is very hard to be invisible online. But what about privacy? Privacy has become a murky concept, and people often confuse it with invisibility. This article explores the difference between these two concepts and how they differ from one another.

Privacy is the right to be left alone. Online privacy, on the other hand, has a different definition. Privacy online means that users can protect their identity by remaining anonymous and hiding information about themselves from others. Online invisibility differs in this regard because it allows for a user's actions to be hidden from everyone else while still being able to interact with themself as they please in an open environment.

Privacy only belongs to the user and can be taken away at any time, whereas invisibility is always on as long as you are in private browsing or incognito mode (Chrome), for example.

What we are really talking about here is the difference between a fundamental human right ( to be left alone), versus a superpower that can only be realized in a virtual environment. This is not to say that the latter is not important in regards to financial and personal data security.

Though privacy rights have been discussed for centuries, it's hard to find an answer that satisfies all parties involved. For example, the right to privacy can be seen as an infringement of another person's right to free speech. In other words to 'be left alone' online might be defined as don't speak or type your opinion on my newsfeed or page. As such, it becomes a difficult task when balancing these two fundamental human rights.

The same is true for anonymity online and invisibility in virtual reality (VR). There are many instances where both have been used with detrimental results: hacking into accounts or violating peoples' personal information under the guise of hiding your identity; using VR environments to harm others anonymously. Such occurrences influence people not only offline but also online, who fear that their very lives might be at risk if they become too visible - or identifiable- on the Internet.

More often than we realize, this has led us back to our original question: what do we want to protect exactly? What is a right and what is just an agreed-on privilege?

Anonymity is not an essential component of privacy but anonymity has challenged our beliefs about what constitutes "privacy" in the first place.

What should be protected as part of anyone’s fundamental human rights--our access information or personal data online, for instance—is something that's been debated by people like Edward Snowden (who wanted to expose how easy it was for governments and criminals alike to steal private data) as well as technologists who think that weakening encryption standards would make society more vulnerable at large.

Regardless of your personal opinion, we can agree that it's important to at least know how these things work and what the risks are. Privacy is not just about who you decide to be friends with on Facebook or which google search result gets shown first, but instead it's about having control over one’s information and data—and therefore being able to choose when and where they share this.

And invisibility online? That relies heavily on anonymity because if someone doesn't want their information known then all traces of themselves should disappear from the internet; ideally without a trace in order for them to live out their life as anonymously as possible. Is that what we all really want? Maybe.