Blog Post #8

 Privacy: Online & Offline

Everyone should be able to feel safe and secure on and offline at all times, but because of how evolved the technological world is as well as how often it changes, it can be quite difficult to keep certain things more private than others. We utilize technology in our day to day lives and we trust these laptops, phones, tablets, etc. with sensitive data and information that we would not want out, but now so easily can be accessed. Social Media has really changed the game in terms of communication, because so many people have these false perceptions about how certain aspects of life really are due to the false ideas that can be presented on the internet. A lot of times these websites and extensions that may seem "safe" or "secure" are actually dangerous and are able to steal sensitive data and information on you or others the second you click on their website. Allowing and accepting cookies and other things of that nature can also add to the dangers of online/offline privacy.

Juan Enriquez, the man that gave a TedTalk titled, "Your Online Life, Permanent As A Tattoo" really stuck out because he did a great job of relating tattoos to the internet and media calling programs such as Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, etc. as electronic tattoos because tattoos are permanent once they are on the body just as something is permanent once you put it on the internet. Through using these apps and posting on them, we are essentially allowing people to view us with ease at all times without even really thinking about it. I thought back to something we spoke about in class regarding having a fake email to use for certain things so that the information collected from applications is not reflective of any of your real life information rather something that is insignificant to yourself.

These kinds of problems such as being watched online, privacy broken, getting hacked, etc. can hurt not only the person directly targeted but also potentially those around the individual/individuals or those close to them in a multitude of ways such as doing the same thing to those people like giving out their private information and data.  My grandmother receives spam calls almost everyday about things she does not even own, yet one time she still fell for something and gave out some information which ultimately led to her having to cancel that credit card because someone had hacked her account and started spending some of her money at a quick rate.

Ari Trachtenberg of futurity.org spoke on what the government along with modern day cybersecurity officers can do to help with these issues and stated, "Companies should think very carefully about every bit of information that they get from customers, weighing the benefit of having this information against the risk of losing it. The problem is that very often, companies do not realize just how damaging the information loss can be." I think educating people on the real dangers of giving out information should be something that the government and other outlets are pushing so that these issues are not as prevalent.

As people I feel it is also important that we do a better job of researching the sources we decide to use as well as making sure if we store information online, that it is in a private and secure place that only the user can access and get to. This for sure has me thinking and reevaluating certain things I have decided to trust and use and has me cautious going forward.