Another two day week for yours truly. If it wasn’t a ski meet it was illness. Nonetheless, I still learned a lot about internet privacy. In my opinion, “privacy” is just an illusion that makes us feel better about sharing information on the internet. When in reality, nothing, especially not your search history, is private.
Privacy is like a blanket. It’s there to make you feel comfortable and protected. You think that what is underneath the blanket is protected, but in reality, you can still see the size and shape of what it’s hiding. In other words, it’s not completely protected or hidden. Nothing you put out into media is private. Not your texts, pictures, web history, or calls. Everything is recorded and archived. Nothing is safe. Snapchat for example even keeps and records pictures that you take and don’t send. As long as it’s done within the app, they have it. It doesn’t have to be sent.
As we learned in class, some companies know as much about you as your recent purchases, your zip code, address, favourite movies and tv shows, etc. They claim that the info they have on you is anonymous because it does not record your name. However, that is just like showing an HD picture and visual description of a person to someone and saying, “I’ll bet you’ll never guess who this is”. But you have all the information you need in that picture and description to find out who they are, just as tracking companies have all sorts of information to pinpoint exactly who people are, regardless of knowing their name.
There are pros and cons to this. The cons are that if companies can access this information, then so can anyone else. They can give it away to other companies for example. Or someone can do an intense search on you and hack you. The thought that someone can get a hold of my credit card number is a pretty scary one. But because of this lack of privacy, government officials have the ability to catch any unsafe behavior tracked on the internet. Like is someone bombed a building, they could narrow suspects down by looking at search histories and seeing if anyone had recently searched “how to get away with a crime” or “how to build a bomb” and the like. This sounds far off. Who would be stupid enough to search such things and why on Earth would you be able to find such information online? Well, if you watch Forensic Files you’ll see that real people have done it before.
It is for those reasons that I do not support more privacy from the government on media, nor do I support less privacy. I don’t want people knowing about my social security number and bizarre things I buy on Amazon any more than then next person. But I do want a safe environment in which criminals can easily be caught.
Privacy is like a blanket. It’s there to make you feel comfortable and protected. You think that what is underneath the blanket is protected, but in reality, you can still see the size and shape of what it’s hiding. In other words, it’s not completely protected or hidden. Nothing you put out into media is private. Not your texts, pictures, web history, or calls. Everything is recorded and archived. Nothing is safe. Snapchat for example even keeps and records pictures that you take and don’t send. As long as it’s done within the app, they have it. It doesn’t have to be sent.
As we learned in class, some companies know as much about you as your recent purchases, your zip code, address, favourite movies and tv shows, etc. They claim that the info they have on you is anonymous because it does not record your name. However, that is just like showing an HD picture and visual description of a person to someone and saying, “I’ll bet you’ll never guess who this is”. But you have all the information you need in that picture and description to find out who they are, just as tracking companies have all sorts of information to pinpoint exactly who people are, regardless of knowing their name.
There are pros and cons to this. The cons are that if companies can access this information, then so can anyone else. They can give it away to other companies for example. Or someone can do an intense search on you and hack you. The thought that someone can get a hold of my credit card number is a pretty scary one. But because of this lack of privacy, government officials have the ability to catch any unsafe behavior tracked on the internet. Like is someone bombed a building, they could narrow suspects down by looking at search histories and seeing if anyone had recently searched “how to get away with a crime” or “how to build a bomb” and the like. This sounds far off. Who would be stupid enough to search such things and why on Earth would you be able to find such information online? Well, if you watch Forensic Files you’ll see that real people have done it before.
It is for those reasons that I do not support more privacy from the government on media, nor do I support less privacy. I don’t want people knowing about my social security number and bizarre things I buy on Amazon any more than then next person. But I do want a safe environment in which criminals can easily be caught.