Blog Post #5 Privacy, Online and Off

I’ve always heard that privacy was an issue when using the internet, email, texts and social media but watching these videos really shocked me! I did not realize how much control I was losing over my privacy through my everyday online activity.

One of the things that was surprising was how anybody can use a picture I may have posted of myself or someone else, highlight it and search for detailed information on that person using a tiny square of a photo. Then how that information and photo could be used without permission—a company directing ads at customers or even something crazy like someone trying to steal my identity. All of this from an innocent post on social media or a text. It doesn’t seem right and legal that this is ok. I know from my own use that Google Lens which just about everybody has on their phones is a fast way to identify objects but I didn’t think about it for other uses—and here even Microsoft gives easy instructions on how to start a search with the help of AI!

So much of what was mentioned in these videos has the potential to affect me, my family and friends. We send emails and texts everyday. We post photos and share information including sensitive data like credit card numbers and other things that we wouldn’t expect anybody else to see. But that’s not what’s happening according to these videos. When the video said our emails are like postcards that really made me realize how easy it is for the wrong people to see my information. It’s also surprising how our activity lives on basically forever and is immortal like an electronic tattoo. Outliving even ourselves. Surveillance on our phones was also terrible to hear about.

Another disturbing thing is how there are surveillance cameras and mass location trackers all around that can track us and our car license plates. A few years ago my family couldn’t find our car that we parked on a NYC street. We went to the police station, gave the license plate number and they were able to show us photos of where we had driven our car over the last few days. This was a big wake up call. The good news though is that our car wasn’t stolen—it was parked a block over from where we were looking. 

I believe the government should set up more regulations about how information is collected and used. This article reviews some of the regulations that currently exist like The Federal Trade Commission Act, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, and others. But even with these there is abuse of people’s privacy. Online tracking systems have become so sophisticated and can go around a lot of the safety features in place. The government should be employing the companies that make cutting edge systems like the encryption systems shown in the video to keep up with technology and stay ahead of the crazy minds of hackers. But there needs to be a balance because government, as shown in the videos, can also abuse its power. They should also require that the terms and conditions that we quickly approve be more clear to the average person who is not taking the time to read it.

We as individuals need to be more responsible to protect ourselves and our privacy. Even though it may take a few minutes longer we should read what we are signing about data collection and privacy. We should also use encryption and authentication wherever we can because it will be worth it in the future. We should also make sure that our everyday posts and online activity is something that if it actually was seen by strangers would not result in harm to ourselves or our privacy.