It seems ever since the internet started on computers, that privacy is no longer an issue for any of us. Let's face it we no longer have it in this world! Everything has gone right out in the open for all to see...Put a name of anybody on there & look in to search and you just about find anything on that person. (Probably even when they last brushed their teeth?) I'm against what has happened & remember a generation ago when your life was your own & it was nobody's business (But your own) what was going on with you. But now a human is an open book for all to see. That is why when my daughter was born in 94 I had to run & get her a social security number. (When I did not get one until I turned 16?) We are now a number to be judged by & it is pretty pathetic!

I like most of your comments, and you frequently talk of family and moral values. Here I think you missed the boat, complaining about a relatively small thing and I would make the opposite points. In America, values like courtesy and tolerance seems to be losing to the idea you need to complain and assert yourself. Difficult, uncompromising self-centered people, are constantly being told to be tougher and more assertive in an overly litigious culture. While many people share these difficult traits, for Jews, they can perpetrate unfortunate stereotypes.

Fine article! Pirkei Avos does teach us about fences as it teached us to judge favourably. And unfortunately - myself included, the rules of speech do not exist outside of the Orthodox world, which may be one reason why the rest of the world puts the Orthodox on a high pedestal whenever the frum err. Thank G-d I am a baal Tshuva, Thank G-d I have a Torah Partner who also taugth me and led me to the Chofetz Chaim's teachings, Lori Palatnik has an amazing book, easy to read which should be mandantory in all schools and school boards: Gossip and 10 ways to erase it from your life (something like that). I 'ate' the book. I ached for some time afterwards at digesting how much better life could have been in my parents house. We can belly-ache all we want about others' invasiveness towards others, but they 'just don't know'.

Just joking. :) But I am a writer and write a lot about personal things. I just always try to know where I need to draw the line. ESPECIALLY when it comes to writing about others. I do hope, though, that I'm not hurting my soul or anyone else's! You can look at my blog and decide for yourself. Google "blog midrash."

to make humor.. Lighten up , brush it off..Things are a lot worse than they appear..

It steals the essence of "superspecial" to each of those that really do know us.

I am a cashier at a Walgreens. It's in a different city and state than the one you shopped at. If this "peeking" into your envelope happened in the store where I'm employed the cashier would have been in BIG trouble. This is considered a violation of customer confidentiality and is enough to put a black mark on someone's employee record. Please tell the manager when something like that happens. Walgreens takes proper customer service very seriously.

Excellent article - so true.

Instead of assuming that they were invading your privacy, maybe inquire of the employee why the envelope was opened? Maybe they put someone else's picture in by accident, maybe they were checking that indeed it was in there? Give the benefit of the doubt, inquire nicely, and if indeed you come to the conclusion they invaded your privacy, you can alert the manager with your complaint, and express your dissapointment in their customer service. If you are that concerned about pictures that are printed, there are many photo printers you could purchase for your private use.

This is one of the primary reasons I quit going to a reform shul and began attending an orthodox one. At the reform shul, a conversation simply couldn't take place without highly invasive questions. People have forgotten how to make conversations that don't include, "What is your age?" "When are you returning to work, since your baby is now a year old?" and other equally rude ones. However, somewhere it's written that we aren't supposed to put people on the spot or ask really personal questions, and I've found that people at the orthodox shul are much, much more "observant" (pardon the pun) of that wise tenet. Unfortunately, some people, like the clerk at your store, really have never been taught what is proper socially. I can't count the number of times when a clerk almost makes me justify some purchase! Last week, I was going out of town and forgot to bring some water, so I stopped at a store and bought some bottled water. The clerk looked at me as if I'd purchased something extravagant and asked if the water was "really worth the price." Since I was going to be in the car for three hours, it was. But it was none of his business why I bought the water.

I agree with you that it is wrong for anyone to open an envelope containing someone else's pictures. It is a question of "PRY" vacy, just as it is really wrong for anyone to open my mail, something that is addressed to me personally, that is clearly not junk mail. We are totally bombarded by people these "daze" who are baring more than their souls on the screen that is life, for all to see. Do I care? I am finding as you are, that it gets to be too much. There are questions I will not answer when I am asked, and one is, family income. I have filled out applications in stores for discounts to come to this question, and when I refuse to answer, I am told, Sorry, we will not then process your application. I think we need to think about these issues, when is it too much? Certainly every writer has this problem when it comes to personal space. We reveal so much of ourselves in the writing, and sometimes this can be harmful to others. We all have this dilemma and it is paradox, surely. We need to display ourselves to others in terms of what we call confidences, and the need to bear witness, but we also, deeply, need to protect ourselves, because, so often, what is near and dear to us, and very much "soul" related, is so easily hurt, as we are sensitive and these things are deeply, private.

Nothing is sacred these days. Everyone wants to know everything about you. I guess know one has enough in their own lives to interest them.