Individuals have certain rights to how and where that information is distributed but in order to exercise those rights they will undoubtedly learn of their genetic profiles and there is the new twist. Knowledge of one's genetic profile will undoubtedly affect the individual's self perception, self esteem and lifestyle. Thus privacy in this situation must include an individual's right not to know. Consumer privacy considers the information complied by data collectors such as marketing firms, insurance companies and retailers, the use of credit information collected by credit agencies and the rights of the consumers to control information about themselves and their commercial transactions. Indeed the extensive sharing of personal data is an erosion of privacy that reduces the capacity of individuals to retain control of factors which may affect their lives.
Organisations involved in such activities have a responsibility to ensure privacy rights are upheld.
In the modern workplace there are increasing opportunities to monitor activity. It is important to ensure the use of monitoring facilities does not violate the privacy rights of employees. Privacy legislation is not universal and where it exists in some countries it is often ineffective. This is because the legislative time frame is always much slower that the technological one. Furthermore, given communities are becoming increasingly free of geographical and temporal constraints the viability of privacy legislation is questionable.