Blog 4- Online Privacy

Online privacy is not a new topic in the digital world, but it is becoming more and more prevalent in the recent years. Social media is growing, and reliance on the Internet seems to be irreversible at times. We as Internet users will put almost anything online, and it is starting to come back to kick us in the face[book].

In the article Technology Coalition Seeks Stronger Privacy Laws by Miguel Helft, he shows that privacy concerns are not just against hackers, but our own government.

We are so quick to trust the ways of the Internet and we think the chances of something targeting us in the vast network are incredibly slim. We assume we will remain safe and private, and will defend that idea faithfully. Yet, even if we do claim a website is not helping us protect our privacy, the number of users does not seem to change dramatically. How much do we really care if we are not taking an active stance against it? I have gotten many spam messages from friends on Facebook who did not personally send them, but not one of them has called it quits and deactivated their account because of this violation.

Some companies feel like they are securing their documents by allowing the file to be online. Instead of only have one or two paper copies that could be lost or damaged, they can have it stored on the web where multiple copies can be made. Personal documents, however, are easier now than ever to find, whether it be by the company or a hacker. It may actually be trickier now to steal paper copies than to hack a network.

What is interesting about this article is that it discusses protecting these company documents not from household hackers, but government authorities. The group known as the Digital Due Process coalition wants to ensure these law enforcements agencies have to obtain a search warrant before they can access a person’s email or any electronic document that would have been published on sites like Google and Facebook.

On the other end of the spectrum, as stated in the article, AT&T is facing a lawsuit for helping the National Security Agency monitor their customer’s private conversation. Where is the line drawn between safety, privacy and paranoia? If they were truly helping to keep our nation safe by sacrificing the privacy of others, we cannot scold them.

When everything comes together, the source of all the privacy issues starts with us. We as social media users, or companies, hope that the sites are secure, and that our identity will be protected. We published every piece of information that is on these sites for others to see. How can we complain that we are losing privacy when we are the source of the issue first place? We know by now that whatever is placed on the Internet never truly goes away, and that an innumerable amount of people can gain access to it. The issue is that we want to be in control of our own data, and the second someone sees it that is not supposed to, we claim our privacy is violated because we are not in control anymore.