How does the whole privacy debate around social networking sites and the web affect you? Personally, there are days when I’m tempted to remove myself off Facebook and times when I leave my cell phone at home or just fall off the radar. Because it’s not just the web. A cell phone can be a constant indicator of where you are too. These days instant messaging programs, Twitter and other cell phone applications like The Grid enable you to share exactly where you are on the map at any given time – sometimes without your knowledge. I find that a little discomforting. As do many of you, I’m sure.

But then again I can’t remember a time in my life when comfort led to anything good. In my experience discomfort is a much better path to take. So here I am, looking for the benefit in all this “invasion of privacy”.

I once read that privacy is a relative term. If you believe in the inherent oneness of the human family, then even the most private decisions of others are no longer entirely a matter of each to his own, but rather a matter of collective implication. On a societal level this is not so hard to accept: if a nation decides on an energy policy, for example, this naturally affects all other nations - especially if they have to pay the price for it. In this age of political, social and environmental interdependence, the consequences of our decisions don’t stay within our national borders.

But when the theory extends to an individual level, it gets more complicated. If you stay with the theory that we’re all one, then if someone decides to, say, kill themselves, it’s not just his or her own business but everyone’s. Now that’s a little harder to digest. But the thinking is that even those whose lives don’t seem to be directly connected to the person's are ultimately affected by his or her decision. This is because life is like a delicate ecosystem. Every individual is a cell, and each cell is necessary and vital for the functioning of the whole. What you do affects the human organism as a whole. This is a bold ideological position to take. It means that we don’t only have rights, such as the right to live the way we want or the right to do with our lives what we want, but also a responsibility – a responsibility towards others and towards the whole.

I think that many of us believe this and don’t believe it at the same time. On the one hand we’re more or less happy to exercise some responsibilities by paying taxes, by not littering, by obeying traffic laws or other laws. But we resist being answerable to anything "bigger" than ourselves, when we feel that our own personal comfort or sense of self-determination is compromised.

But while we don’t want anyone else reading our personal messages on Facebook, we get upset when Gordon Brown slips up as he’s getting into his car with the mic still on. But how many of us talk about our own family members in worse ways than he did about that voter? We don’t always mean it that way. We allow ourselves to let off steam in private. And so beyond the danger of credit-card fraud or identity theft, the “invasion of privacy” - the availability of our info to third parties; the microphone that is left on at all times – has a tendency to shed a light onto the discrepancy between who we are and who we profess to be. It exposes our hypocrisy and amplifies our mistakes or shortcomings - sometimes in cruel and disproportionate ways.

I know that there are many dangers and fears involved with the abuse of privacy. But with the mic being on at all times, one advantage is that we are pushed to live lives that are more conscious and in line with what we believe is right. It can help us narrow the gap between our theoretic values and our actual application of them. It may help us exercise more caution and wisdom in what we say and how we act. And this means that we as a human family can move towards more refinement and unity.

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