BLOG #7: PRIVACY, ONLINE & OFF

"Electronic Tattoo"

Your online life is like a tattoo: its permanent and can tell a lot about someones whole life story. Thanks to modern technology, the government knows way too much about what happen's in people's life. In todays world, there is technology everywhere and sometimes we don't even notice it. According to Catherine Crumps Ted Talk, "the government can gain a detailed portrait about how citizens interact". Doesn't that scare you? It scares me because it makes me wonder if the government has information about me that I don't even know exists anywhere. This could include how fast i'm driving to school, or a doctors appointment I could've gone to years ago.

Privacy is an issue in today's modern world that is almost impossible to avoid. My family purchases technology such as iPhone's, computers, Amazon Alexa's, with the idea of knowing those types of technology stores all of our information. Everything that I ask Alexa to do, the government could have that stored for years to come. Or if I share my location with my family and friends, the government probably has my location as well. The issue of privacy is something that we can't control unless we don't interact with modern technology.

The government's purpose is to protect their country and the citizens in it. Technology has been helpful to the government in this way because it discloses information that could be useful if an issue arises. If the government loses access to others technology, then they would have no purpose for their job. As a citizen of the United States, I feel safer knowing that the government has certain types of information such as my location and my whereabouts just in case something bad were to happen to me. To protect ourselves from invasions of our privacy is to disaffiliate ourselves with modern technology and to be careful what we post on the internet. This can also be avoided by being aware of our surroundings and knowing that technology is present anywhere at anytime.