With HTML and the advent of the WWW, layers of information were added to documents that remain hidden from the user’s view. Unbeknownst to the user, they can contain, carry, and transmit information that can incriminate or divulge the user beyond any level that a reasonably responsible person can be aware of. The new standard Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), virtually allows to transmit our entire medical record within a single IP address sent back to a website.
Is such a system not determined to falter once society realizes its perils?
There is a legal concept of “informational self-determination”, interpreted as “The right of the individual to decide what information about himself should be communicated to others and under what circumstances” (Westin, 1970).