After watching the four Ted Talk videos posted for class, and reflecting upon them I have come to the conclusion that the issues discussed are of remarkable significance in todays society.
Today people in the United States leave a massive digital footprint, and in doing so provide companies like Facebook, Google, and Twitter a plethora of personal information that these corporations are free to use in any capacity they may choose. These companies may choose to sell your information to other companies or even the government; giving them information on your shopping habits, where you travel on the internet and what you buy, and even your GPS location in real time. You may be sitting there asking yourself, Who cares? Or saying, I don’t have anything to hide, I don’t mind. However these egregious breaches of your personal privacy could be dangerous. Many of these internet platforms Can use this data to shape the way you think and what you think, thanks to targeted advertising and marketing. In some cases this can be seen as a dangerous path to to George Orwell’s 1984 dystopian society, where free thought is a crime and Big Brother is always watching.
In some ways we are already there. In the second Ted Talk video, Catherine Crump discusses how automatic license plate readers are pouring the data, even for law abiding citizens, into the databases of our local police forces. This data can show where you travel to, who you are with and even what you are doing; and they have all of this information without a warrant, without any evidence of a crime being committed, and it makes you wonder, what happened to innocent until proven guilty? If this principle, that is so important to the American identity no longer exists, then who is to say what other guaranteed freedoms may be stolen from us in the future.
The third Ted Talk discusses how simple it is for the government and different law enforcement agencies to back door they’re way into your personal conversations on your phone, thanks to the cooperation of private cellular carriers. The videos also discusses how some tech companies like Facebook and Apple have developed some encryption software to make this more difficult. However, who is to say that these companies have not built back doors into their softwares as well, especially since these companies are known for selling your personal data.
The best way to protect yourself remains to not put your personal information on the internet as best you can. Use fake emails, close tabs and apps so that you can’t be tracked, use IMessage and WhatsApp so it is harder for the government to see your personal conversations, and most importantly, be smart about the information that you make available to these companies, and anyone else who may manage to get a hold of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment