Blog #8 Privacy Online and Off

Blog Post #8 Privacy Online and Off 

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Never before in history have we seen such a unique issue questioning how the First Amendment relates to privacy and how and if the government should be more involved in this issue. Just like in the past problems such as voting, citizenship, discrimination, suppression of speech, food regulation, workplace regulation, etc. called the government in for government intervention. This issue of privacy on and offline needs to be handled and is the current issue that the government should focus on tackling before it becomes even more out of hand.  Fortunately, people such as those speaking at TED Talks are discussing these issues and solutions in order to protect the average citizen. 

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Juan Enriquez in his TED talk discusses tattoos and just like tattoos, we are making our permanent electronic tattoos. Companies are using facial recognition and selling this information to other companies in order to help them better advertise to consumers. He pointed out how social media is creating immortality as once someone moves on technology still allows them to live. Enriquez said that we must learn from the Greeks and Latin America and follow these lessons: be careful what you post, don't look into the past of those you love too much, don't let social media distract you from your life, don't fall in love with your own reflection, and immortality is the true threat and not mortality. 

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Catherine Crump discusses how small-town police departments are gaining access to advanced military weapons as well as surveillance that should not be used on the local level. There is nothing preventing the government from overstepping into our private lives and since they are able to, they will and have. The government can track our location, our face, our posts, etc, and combine all this information into giant databases. I am from Northern Virginia, which is sometimes referred to as the second Silicon Valley as there are so many tech companies and databases in the area that are filled with computers and other electronics with all of our information on them. What we are currently seeing is an abuse of power where civil liberties are being threatened. Laws need to be implemented on how to use technology properly and to protect privacy.

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Christopher Soghoian mentions how some companies such as Apple or WhatsApp protect their citizen's information and they themselves cannot even see what a text message says. This is what should happen with all technology companies as people are able to freely talk without the risk of being wiretapped by the government or other outside actors. For example, people in the southeast are now able to communicate via WhatsApp without fear of government intervention in their private conversations. Soghoian said that there is no way to control who gets in the back door, so there should be no way for anyone to get in the backdoor, which may make it harder for police to catch buy guys but protects the average citizen's privacy. 

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Darieth Chisolm, a victim of digital domestic violence, talks about how domestic violence is now taking over the digital world. With technology, we have seen a rise in nudes and pornographic imagery being shared across the internet and we are now facing issues of revenge porn and leaked nude images which are ruining people's careers one picture at a time. In fact, 1 in 25 women have been impacted by digital domestic violence and 1 in 10 women under the age of 30 have. There is a lack of regulation when it comes to issues such as these. Movies such as The Social Dilemma and The Sound of Freedom point out these issues.