After viewing the TED Talk videos covering issues with privacy, concerns were raised for me regarding my person information and technology. Everyone that utilizes technology is a victim to their personal data being collected. The scary truth is, nothing that uses technology is private. Data is pulled from everything everybody does in the digital age.
One of the TED Talks that opened my eyes was "Your online life, permanent as a tattoo." In this clip, Juan Enriquez discussed the dangers of technology and how it can alter your life in a dramatic way. He relates the use of social media to getting a permanent tattoo. He refers to Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, cell phones, GPS, Foursquare, Yelp, Travel Advisor, Easy Pass, security cameras, Wikipedia, credit scores, and credit cards as "electronic tattoos." Enriquez explains how facial recognition is interrupting people's privacy. A picture could be take of a random person and from facial recognition you would be able to identify that person and download their data. A quote that really stuck out to me during this video was, "because of electronic tattoos, maybe all of you and all of us are very close to immortality." This was extremely interesting to think about since far after we die, our digital footprint will stay forever.
The next TED Talk that I enjoyed was presented by Finn Myrstad. He talks about this child's toy that connects to a mobile app. The scariest thing is, the toy has a speaker attached to it that connects to the phones microphone allowing people to talk as the doll. After investigation done by Finn himself, he found out that any stranger can connect their phone to the doll while being outside the room of the doll. There was no password or security needed to connect to this doll and speak to the child playing with it. After uncovering this scary security issue, companies continued to sell this dangerous toy.
Finn then goes onto talk about the issues surrounding the terms and conditions that consumers agree to everyday. It took almost 32 hours to read the terms on an average phone. This means that a large majority of the population does not know what they are agreeing to when signing off on these conditions. They could be signing away all of their security and privacy that they thought they had on their phones.
The digital age is truly a scary time. Most people do not realize the effect that technology could have on our lives. We must be extra careful when posting, sending texts, searching, and much more because there truly is no such thing as privacy. Although it may seem impossible, there are ways we can protect ourselves from being a victim of this.
The NY Times released an article titled, "How to Protect Your Digital Privacy." They list necessary steps needed to be taken. "By making a few simple changes to your device and accounts, you can maintain security against outside parties' unwanted attempts to access your data as well as protect your privacy from those you don't consent to sharing your information with." The steps they list include securing your account, keeping your private thoughts offline, and using antivirus software.
In my opinion, the most important thing that we can do to protect ourselves is to keep our lives offline as much as possible. Everything is permanent and could be used against you in more ways than you could even think.
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