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AIA3. “Government should place stricter limits on the ability of businesses to invade citizens’ privacy through telemarketing, E-mail, advertising, collection of personal information on consumers, and so on, even if those limits affect businesses’ profitability and competitiveness.”
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion stated above. Support your position with reasons and/or examples from your experience, observations, or reading. 政府是否应当更加严格限制企业通过各种渠道获取顾客的私人信息。
When people enter into information age in a highly advanced commercial world today, business tends to invade pepole’s personal life through telemarketing, E-mail, advertising, and collection of personal information on consumers to an unprecedented extent. People are exposed to tons of business information which is regraded as noise, through all kinds of media channels. At the same time, personal information is hunted and used as commercial data by companies in their business activities, and even sometimes, consumer personal information is shared or sold among companies. Thus a serious issue is raised---- How to protect and guarantee consumer’s citizen rights? Government should place stricter limits on the ability of businesses to invade citizens’ privacy, even those limits affect businesses’ profitability and competitiveness. This essay will examine this matter case by case.
In the first place, a vast amount of business information disturbs people’s personal life very much, the mess status which should be interfered through legislation mechanism by government as market mechanisam can not adjust the business information invasion. All kinds of business organizations regard mass communication as the most effective competition method, and even sometimes as the only successful solution to win more consumers. Hence, companies prefer to make use of mass communication strategy, to deliver amounts of business information by various media channels to develop or mold consumers’ favor to their products, to defend rival’s commercial activities, and to weaken ‘noise’ from competitors. Then consumers are forced to face such information in all kinds of situations, even in their private lives. For example, in 2004 about 20% citizens in USA get over 30 commercial junck e-mails everyday. (我杜撰的) People spend a lot of time and money on avoiding these junk mails invasion. Therefore, commercial information invasion damages consumers’ citizen rights, and it continues to extend and exaggerate as commercial competition turns out to be increasingly intense today. It is obvious that government would have to forbid business information communications to invade people personal lives.
Moreover, the collection of personal information on consumers will threaten consumer privacy and financial security. This problem becomes very prominent as credit usage gets more popular and different industries ally in the context of worldwide. Companies collect consumers’ personal information, including both their demographic status and some relevant security information, such as income, financial status, and even credit account. Companies claim that they will keep good moral value to protect comsumers’ privacy in the course of collecting consumers’ data and that such data will be helpful to effective consumer management and to better consumers service. But actually consumers are much weakened in the bargain leverage as companies get whole information about consumers. And the financial security of consumers becomes a big social problem.
Consequently, I strongly approve to place stricter limits on the ability of businesses to invade citizens’ privacy, even if those limits affect businesses’ profitability and competitiveness. Given that business information invasion damage consumers and threaten their security on a severe degree and extent, government can do nothing except imposing stricter limits on business information invasion.
[此贴子已经被作者于2005-8-20 18:09:41编辑过] | 
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发表于 2005-8-20 15:14:00
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