Privacy has become a core concern with increasing ease of collection and transmission of personal information stored in digital media. Although information technologies have enhanced information sharing thus facilitating various business and social processes, the resultant ease of gathering and transmitting information has presented various privacy challenges (Halbert & Inguli, 2012, pp. 84-85). This paper reviews the privacy challenges presented by the digital information era and the legislative and other measures for addressing such challenges. Technologies allowing individuals to research citizen’s private data Various technologies allow individuals to collect other individual’s private data. Three of these technologies are data mining software used to collect customer information, surveillance software used to monitor employees and customers’ usage of the internet and applications that enable assess to passwords to personal accounts. Data mining software allows collection of personal data in places such as points of sale where consumers use their credit cards and in websites that individuals visit to make online purchases or fill in customer surveys. Such data may be used to better service to consumers but when sold to third parties, it may be applied for spam marketing and other malicious purposes (Bélanger & Crossler, 2011; Allen, Walker, Coopman & Hart, 2007). Employers use electronic surveillance software to monitor activities that employees perform during working hours (Allen et al., 2007). Such software could allow collection of private information for instance by evaluating the information that employees send through the company’s information systems. For consumers, surveillance software such as cookies installed in an individual’s computer help entities learn on the websites the consumers visit thus getting personal information on such consumers. Various applications also exist that could lead to breach of passwords for websites containing personal information (Wood, 1983). Such software include key loggers that record the key strokes that a computer user types thus could lead to the users of such key loggers having passwords that allow them to access personal accounts of the computer user. Advantages and disadvantages of public access of private information Access to private information has various implications for researchers and those whose information has been accessed. With regard to the researchers, the positive aspect is that knowledge of private information could assist in offering customized solutions to the individuals, ensure appropriate use of time at work by employees, and avoid aspects such as negligent hiring (Allen et al., 2007, Peebles, 2012; Bélanger & Crossler, 2011). On the negative side, by accessing private information illegally, researchers could be subject to litigation leading to eventual loss of business or imprisonment (Carr, 2007). With regard to individuals whose information has been accessed, positive effects include increasing sensitization about privacy issues hence their participation in combating privacy breaches, and receiving information tailored to ones specific interests (Berman & Bruening, 2001). On the negative end, access to private information impinges on an individual’s privacy thus challenging aspects such as “personal autonomy,