Privacy In The Digital Age

 Privacy is something everyone takes for granted, even in the age of social media. We assume that we have privacy in our personal lives, regardless of whether it is true or not. The government has access to private information and can track you in a car. Police departments have a record of license plates from ordinary people. They have not done anything wrong, but their record is being gathered anyway. It can be used to target people, as NYPD did to mosques. Your location is freely avalible to law enforcement. They can track a person using cell phone towers to know everywhere they go. Good for finding criminals, but not so much when it can be used on citizens who have done nothing wrong. 



While surveillance happens many different ways, the most prominent is cell phones. People can access your phone calls or texts to find out information about you without you knowing. Luckily with modern tech encryption has become better and it is no longer as big of an issue. This is great, but it also only applies to cell phone and computer features. Most people do not stop and think about the cameras watching them when they are walking down the street, but they are there none the less. A hacker could access them and use it for stalking or other wrong reasons. It encourages the government to watch those that do not need watching just for the sake of a "what if" future. The government should not be spying on citzens who have done nothing wrong. To protect ourselves from invasions of privacy we need to demand transparency from the government about how they interact with the American people. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Age Of AI Reflection

Image
 There are many positives to artificial intelligence and machine learning. It can be used to automate boring tasks that human do, like putting a car together or doing complex math problems. This will make the task more effiecient as well as faster, without the risk of human error. We can do more while taking less time. AI provides many oppurtunitys to people who might otherwise be left without, like self driving cars for those that can not afford them or medical diagnosis quicker than humans can see. It also poses many risks as well. AI facial reconizition is used to unlock your phone, pay for groceries, and find who did a crime. This is convient, but comes with risks. AI can be used by the government to track people like they do in China . It can be hacked and used against ordinary people. It can mean a barrier against identity theft, but because of AI we also have deep fakes that can seen exactly like the person it is imitating. AI can use your information that it learns from you to
Read more

What I Learned About The Phonograph

Image
 During the EOTO presentations, I learned about the phonograph from someone else. I found this really interesting as phonographs were a precursor to the CD player. A phonograph is an early machine that produced sound as well as recording through cylinders. It reproduces sound through the vibration of a needle following  groves in a disk. It is also known as a record player. It was created by Thomas Edison in 1877. He created this by combining his previous inventions of the telegraph and telephone. The machine was used in World War 1 by the Army. The phonograph was popular from the 1890s up until the World War 1 era.   The first recordings were made by Edison by making indentations on a piece of tinfoil, which was then wrapped around a cylinder to be played. It was redeveloped over the years by Edison and others to produce better results. Columbia Records produced the long playing record in 1948 which could play for 30 minutes on each side of the record. Phonographs had 5  main compon
Read more

What I Learned About 5 Eyes

Image
During the class presentations I learned about the organization 5 Eyes. It is an intelligence organization made up of The United States, Britian, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The purpose of this group is to share intelligence among themselves. It was  first formed in 1946 after World War 2. Its first intention was preventing the Russians from learning American secrets. It then grew with the inclusion of Australia, New Zealand and Canada.  There are many different intelligence sharing groups like NATO, but it is not equal to Five Eyes. Because of the shared language and interests, information sharing between the nations involved in the organization is more effective than other organizations that might include many countries with conflicting interests. They moniter each others citizens for intelligence, a fact that was relativly unknown until it was exposed  by Edward Snowden in 2013.  % Eyes has been helpful in the aftermath of terrorist attacks. In a report by CNN they say &quo
Read more