Page - 192 - in Cyborg Mind - What Brain–Computer and Mind–Cyberspace Interfaces Mean for Cyberneuroethics

192 • Cyborg Mind where the benefits of a society that is far more open and less private will lead to a safer, diverse, more empathetic world. We should be cautious, but not afraid.422 But reality may be more complex and it is recognised that regulations gov- erning the possession of digital information are very different from those of standard offline possession.423 Once an image has been posted online, it may be retained by the website (depending on its terms and conditions) or others could reproduce, share, adapt and use it in ways that may be troubling to the original owner.424 Since it is extremely difficult to permanently delete an online personal history, individuals may need to be very careful when sharing personal information online.425 A further challenge is the way in which persons are increasingly encour- aged to disclose information about themselves through incentives such as access to services like social network sites or free WiFi. This happens because a financial value exists from the exploiting of customer data.426 Even individuals who do not choose to have an online presence may be identified through photos of themselves that are uploaded.427 This also means that individuals may no longer be the primary creators of their own online identities, which may have implications for their offline identities.428 Farahany believes that advances in neuroscience represent a challenge to the way in which society has come to understand privacy. She notes: ‘We have this idea of privacy that includes the space around our thoughts, which we only share with people we want to . . . Neuroscience shows that what we thought of as this zone of privacy can be breached.’429 But social media may also facilitate connections between like-minded individuals creating niche communities of interest, which could be benign or malign,430 while rein- forcing existing behaviours, normalising minority identities and broadening choices.431 To the extent to which matters of privacy are being discussed, the cor- responding issue of surveillance can also be raised. This has generally been defined as recording or storing information about a person’s movements and activities, and then processing this information in some way. In this respect, privacy is only impinged if a person is not aware or has not assented to being surveyed. The Right to Privacy A right to privacy generally includes the right to not be exposed to unlawful and unethical surveillance by authorities and private enterprises. The UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights indicates in Article 12 that: This open access edition has been made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license thanks to the support of Knowledge Unlatched. Not for resale.