John Smith

In Response to Professor Johnson 
Regarding Smith

In tough economic times people at least consider options they wouldn’t normally even dream of, in order to try to preserve what they have.  It is extremely easy for outsiders to sit back and say somebody shouldn’t do something in order to preserve their way of life.  Especially as an American male, there is a lot of pressure for them to be able to bring home the paycheck week in and week out.  That being said, how would you like it if you had your information sold to an advertising company? 

Most of the time this would be illegal anyways as the TOS would clearly state that the participants can’t give or sell their responses or information to anybody other than what was stated.  Even if it wasn’t illegal it was just morally wrong.  This violates the AMA’s three principles and possibly even worse, it ruins the chance of later, legitimate researchers to be able to get information out of these people.

This response seems pretty cut and dry, not many people would say that innocent people should have their information sold, just for the benefit of a select few.  When privacy becomes a potential security threat is another matter.  The TSA in airlines fights this issue every single day.  People want to be safe, but yet don’t want to have to give up any of their rights. 

Where should they draw the line?  If your name is on the no fly list because you are related to somebody should that be disclosed?  Should the TSA be allowed to rifle through all of your personal belongings?  Should they be able to scan your body and put up an exact proportional replica of it on the screen for all of the agents to see?