Blog Post #5: How Much Privacy Do We Really Have?

Overview

Privacy. A term that many of us know the definition to but do not know much about the extent of what the concept really entails. We may be in the year of 2021 and we may be seeing numerous technological advances that is further enhancing our ability to communicate and voice our opinions to and with others in society, but that doesn't mean everything about this is beneficial for our nation. There are actually many downsides to having so much technology in our world that is leading to a drastic increase in the amount of access that government officials have. Especially within the past 10 years the popularity and usage rate of social media has skyrocketed and more and more individuals are utilizing the internet for a variety of reasons. In 2011, it was reported by Pew Research Center that 50% of American adults had used at least one social media platform, a 45 percent increase from 2005. That number has now expanded to 72% of the public using some type of social media. Some of those reasons may include research for a school project, looking for news sources to stay up to date with what's going on in the world, and then there's of course perhaps the most enticing reason of them all... looking up stuff for fun. Think about when you're searching up something on your phone. Are you heading into it with the assumption that someone is actually watching what you're searching and taking note of it that they plan on holding onto forever? Unless, you've thoroughly researched the concept of privacy in today's day of age, then the answer is probably no. Now think about what would be someone's reaction if you were to go up to someone sitting outside your college campus on their phone and you just stare over their back seeing what they're doing on their phone. You'll most likely get a really weird look and perhaps a smack or two in the face for invading someone's personal space, but more importantly invading someone's privacy on whatever it is they are doing on their phone. One of the more common norms especially here in America is to not go around asking people what their political affiliation is or what their sexual orientation is unless that person reveals that information to you. A recent survey showed that over 62% of Americans are afraid to share their political views. This of course can be for a variety of reasons, but one of the most common reasons is that people do not want to have the perception of what others think about them if they tell them what their political affiliation is. Politics has been a huge point of topic today when its discussion of who wants to get vaccinated and who doesn't. Instead of unity being formed across society, numerous debates have sparked because people feel the need to bring politics into every little thing which is absolutely cruel and devastating. While we think we are getting a break from the real world whenever we are utilizing technology to text somebody, play a game on our phone or google something random on the web, we actually are not. As a matter of fact we are actually exposing ourselves to the public more than if we were to walk into a public mall. This is due to many reasons, but it all starts with the government wanting to and tracking every move we make in terms of our online searches and location for the sake of themselves and not caring at all about the privacy of us human beings which is the unfortunate reality of society today.

What Exactly is Being Tracked?

The first TedTalk video by Juan Enriquez discusses the idea of your online life being permanent like a tattoo. This is the unfortunate truth in our society today. No matter how many times you clear your search history, that information you looked up on the internet is going to be on record forever. Oftentimes, we feel entitled with the internet and think that it is this safe and secure area where we can go crazy, look up whatever we want, and never receive any backlash or harm from it. WRONG!!! The reality of it is that privacy is almost nonexistent in our society. The government is constantly watching us and are always looking for more and more ways to acquire information about us which is super scary when you really think about it. We have the right to things like free speech and free expression of religion, but we don't have the right to keeping what we do on our phone and the internet confidential. What's worse is that this whole idea of the government invading our privacy goes far beyond what we search on our phones and type in on the web. As Catherine Crump discussed during her TedTalk, police officers used what are called automatic licensed plate readers whenever they are driving in their police car. Essentially what they do is they capture images of every passing car and convert the license plate into machinable readable texts so they can capture anyone who may be in the midst of wrongdoing. It is understandable that police officers want to capture the bad guys roaming around the world, but the unfair and completely unnecessary thing that local police departments are doing is that they are keeping records of every plate passing by resulting in them collecting mass quantities of data of where Americans have traveled to with their car, where they are going and even who they're with. According to the police department, they think keeping the information of all of these U.S. citizens can be useful someday just in case they need to do any research on these individuals. Sure there's always people getting arrested every day but the number of people keep getting arrested and in jail for an extended period of time compared to the number of individuals driving on the road every day is not equivalent in any manner whatsoever. The fact that law enforcement can instantly track my location and other data about me when I am driving is extremely frightening and I personally see no benefit for them to acquire information about myself as well as others where there is essentially less than a 1% chance of them ever using their information someday. Furthermore, there is such thing as the "Cell tower dump" that can also reveal a person's location and Stingray where law enforcement can send tracking signals inside people's houses to identify the cell phones located there. These are just a FEW of the MANY methods the government uses to track private information about us without receiving our consent. 

Police use automatic licensed plate readers that allows them to easily gather private information of drivers on the road including their desired location

Despite hearing all of the negative flaws that are coming off the government invading our privacy through all of these ted talks, I did appreciate hearing how Christopher Soghoian, the speaker of the TedTalk "How to avoid surveillance with the phone in your pocket" touched on a solution that can be made in order to address this issue of police departments essentially spying on us and taking our information. The solution would involve local police departments being governed by the city councils in which they can pass laws requiring the police to dispose the data about innocents people. This would result in an immense decrease in the amount of information that law enforcement has on various U.S. citizens. In addition, reiterated just how badly the government wants access to our information as it talked about how government officials believe all of these forms of communication like text messages and emails of people should be available to them. However, the concept of encryption is actually saving us human beings as it is making it difficult for government officials to capture private information about us. Encryption is a method by which information is actually converted into a secret code that hides the information's true meaning. talked about continuing to have us build networks that are secure as possible for the sake of the safety of the general public. I really admired how during his TedTalk, Soghoian did not sugarcoat anything about the drawbacks of what building all these safe networks could do for our society as he mentioned how it will mean the police may have a tougher time to catch bad guys due to a smaller amount of information about everybody. However, in this scenario it is vital to look at it from the bigger picture and come to the realization that creating more security on these networks will ultimately help protect the privacy and well-being of quality U.S. citizens. This means encryption is going to make wiretapping more difficult.

How are we being affected by a limitation of our privacy?

This issue of constantly being monitored by the government and them taking our information has immensely affected myself, my friends, my family, and the rest of society in numerous ways. For starters, the fact that the government has full access to lots of information about me including my search history, my conversations over the phone and other stuff that I don't even know about is terrifying and completely unfair. They are taking my information, creating a file about me and essentially using what they have in order to determine who I am when in reality they cannot discover the real me through that information. I'll admit, who I am over text and on the phone is generally who I am in person. However, I also have a much more laid back approach whenever I am texting or FaceTiming my friends because that is what those things are meant for. Especially since I am already getting a early taste into what its like working in the Sports Media industry by announcing NCAA Division 1 sporting events on ESPN+ as well as producing a podcast that is published to all the major podcasting streaming platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, etc. I do use technology and social media a lot for business inquires as well. Oftentimes, this will result in lots of messages being sent whenever I am trying to book guests on my podcasts or check in with my mentors who are already working professionally in the sports media industry via LinkedIn or simply texting them. I always have been a firm believer in using social media and technology wisely and not presenting a false representation of myself to the general public, but it can be very easy for the government to still take the information about me that is online and possibly try and twist it around in some fashion. Moreover, my biggest concern has been about other human beings checking my social media pages, taking something like one of my Instagram photos and completely revamping it into something that is harmful/inappropriate. This is often why I like setting most of my accounts on private. Little did I know until know that nothing really is "private" online. If you post something, the government can and will get access to it somehow.

Why do you think many teachers and professors all over the world stress the importance of being careful of what you post online? They say this because they know potential employers and others can easily find it. I have always taken those words to heart and I have done everything in my power to be extremely cautious with what I post online and what I send over text and such, but at the end of the day I should not feel restricted with what I can and can not do with technology. The purpose of technology is to be able to express yourself freely and meet whatever needs it is that you have. I have friends who I know love to be very open about sharing their opinions on topics like sports and music over social media, but because of the government, those opinions their posting on their social media platforms or even the opinions they will only share with a couple of other friends over text actually end up being in the government's system forever even if they delete that post or text. A lot of my extended family members love using Facebook as an outlet to share memorable moments with what our family has been up to and we even have a private group page to stay in touch, but with that information being tracked, the government is able to acquire more and more information about our family very easily which should not be the case at all. Facebook has over 2.83 billion users as of 2021, making it the most actively used social media platform in the world today. Just think about how many opportunities that gives the government to track people. This is why growing up my parents were always hesitant about me getting social media and also the reason why both my mom and dad still do not have social media platforms to this very day. They do not see the purpose of sharing content that can easily be tracked and to be honest I don't blame them. They didn't grow up in an era where social media and technology were as prominent as it is now. Sadly, its to the point nowadays where the more information you post about yourself online, the more you're putting yourself at risk of having your privacy invaded which is the unfortunate reality of today's society and just how much the government loves manipulating all of us. 

Facebook is still the world's most used social media platform as of 2021 with a total of over 2.83 billion active users 

Furthermore, I do actually know a few people who have been a victim of digital domestic violence, a issue that was discussed in Darieth Chisolm's TedTalk "How revenge porn turns life upside down" Digital domestic violence is when someone, mostly a current partner or ex-lover will use cell phones, laptops, and other forms of technology to post explicit images and videos of someone without their consent. 1 in 25 women say that they have been impacted by revenge porn and for women under 30, that number is 1 in 10.  Numerous women especially have seen their life be tremendously affected by it because their private areas are being displayed on the internet where anyone can see it. Even if it gets deleted one hour of its posting, think about how many creeps that already saw it probably took a screenshot of the image or a screen recording of the video. Also, like I mentioned earlier in this blog, once something is uploaded online, it is still present forever even if gets deleted. There's one thing to take advantage of someone's location and knowing where they are driving too, but it is a COMPLTLEY different thing to see someone take advantage of someone for breaking up with them or not being as committed to a relationship with them. It's crazy that we're not even talking about a random stalker posting images of someone online, although that is real thing as seen with sports reporter Erin Andrews who had several images of her nude in a hotel room uploaded online without her consent. Here we are talking about a current boyfriend/girlfriend or ex-lover committing these harmful actions.

To make matters worst, there is currently good policy is set in place that has put an end to this ongoing issue in our society. Think about for a second of what punishments someone that gets charged for revenge porn receives. Does it surprise you that only 40 states have misdemeanors for revenge porn and some of those punishments are as simple as a $500 fine?! This is ridiculous and the severity of these consequences for committing these wrongdoing actions need to be raised immediately. We are talking about a crime that is affecting someone's life forever. A memory that they will never be able to erase from their mind. A memory that many of their close friends and family members will never be able to erase from their mind. Domestic violence in person has already been such an ongoing issue in our society. Numerous athletes like former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice and current Cleveland Browns running back Kareem Hunt were charged with domestic violence. Rice never found his way back into the NFL after that incident and it took Kareem Hunt years to get back in the league and when he did, it was with a franchise that has one of the lowest winning percentages in this century and one of six active NFL teams to never have made it to the Super Bowl. The sad thing about these cases were that the women while given some media attention at the start never really found their way to recovering in full and the only reason they even got any attention in the first place was because they were assaulted by professional athletes. Domestic violence unfortunately happens on a consistent basis and with technological advances rapidly becoming more present in society, digital domestic violence cases are starting to take a rise as well, but not enough of the cases are being reported nor addressed well enough. 

What should the government be doing to address these issues?

The government needs to use their power the right way here and help these innocent individuals being affected by digital domestic violence out and increase the punishments of the idiots who elect to wrongfully abuse someone they were once close with online. This is only making our society look worse and less unified by seeing all these explicit images and videos on the internet and it is sending wrong messages to those who are seeing this kind of content being displayed and is giving the opportunity for more creeps to come in and use those photos and videos for bad use. Women are targeted with sexually explicit messages and threats 27 more times than men, making social media and the internet a very dangerous place for many women where every single day there's creeps looking to manipulate women and harm them in as many forms as possible. We all deserve to receive a respectable amount of privacy and should not have to worry about whether or not someone is tracking us for trying to take advantage and put out our personal information on the web. While some may say, it is the fault of us human beings who are active on social media for posting any information about them on various platforms, the purpose of social media is to allow for our society to be more connected. The concept of social media is honestly really fantastic when you think about it, but when cases like digital domestic violence happens, the reputation of social media rapidly decreases. This is a big reason why whether social media actually provides positive benefits to our society is so controversial. Sure, there may be some knuckleheads out there who are using their social media accounts for the wrong reasons and then of course you have to worry about bots, but a large chunk of people just want to use social media to share their proud moments in life as well as to actively voice their freedom of speech if its on a topic like sports, health, technology, or politics. 

If the government were to enforce stricter guidelines on social media platforms and websites that prevent people from becoming endangered online then it would create for a more user-friendly experience on social media and on the internet in general. Many parents get worried sick about their children potentially getting hacked or threatened on social media. I had wanted social media since I was 11, but I was not able to get it until I was 13 because my parents were afraid of the harm it could bring to my mental health and how my personal information could easily be taken and no longer be "personal" anymore. Most social media sites require their users to be at least 13 years of age and lots of sources online will say that parents should let their children use social media sites when they are "mature". Well how do we define what makes someone mature? Let alone what makes a child mature? They are still a child and have not experienced the same things many adults have experienced and are not aware nor are they following current trends and issues in our society as thoroughly as those older than them are. Nevertheless, a 11 year old boy can be the most mature child in the world, but that doesn't mean a darn thing because the government is still going to track that 11 year old and get to know everything they need to know about him. The government already manipulates numerous adults, so what makes us think children won't be exposed to something similar if not worse than what adults experience from them? 

It's crazy... if the government wants to spend so much time tracking us on a consistent basis, why don't they actually start looking out for these innocent people that are severely affected by issues like digital domestic violence on a consistent basis? Law enforcement claims to be taking our information just in case there comes a circumstance where they need to use it in order to catch a "bad guy", but why are there still so many cases in our society today where it takes weeks, sometimes months and even longer to find out who committed the crime? It seems as though the government is just not taking the well-being of citizens into consideration and are essentially playing games with us in terms of tracking everything about us but never really using that information they gather for any beneficial reason. Since 2007, the share saying that U.S citizens can trust the government has not surpassed 30% in a yearly survey that is conducted by the Pew Research Center. The government is already on the bad side of lots of people in America, so how long would it take for them to get on the good side of everybody? Well, the realistic answer to that is they will never be on the good side of EVERY single person simply because they have already hurt so many individuals by invading our privacy and not holding certain people accountable for the harmful actions that they committed. The government just needs to put the people of America before themselves and find any ways they can to help them out on a consistent basis. Not be on the lookout for them for two days, but EVERY day. They have so much powers and numerous resources that they can use. Ironically enough, the numerous resources that they have has come from the technological advances that have risen to full fruition in our society. The task is not hard for the government to address these issues, they just need to speak out, admit that they have not done a proficient job of protecting our citizens and promise that they are going to come up with stronger methods to help ensure the safety of all individuals across America. 

Tips and tricks for protecting ourselves from invasions of privacy

While we as citizens can't control how the government attempts to take advantage of us, there are many intelligent methods that we can use to help keep ourselves safe and secure from consecutive invasions of privacy. For starters, One of the main ways is to restrict what you put on your social media accounts, specifically your profile. This means not including personal information like your home location, birthday, phone number, email address or anything that someone can easily use to their advantage. Unfortunately, anything you post on social media nowadays is fair game to be used as information that the government or a creep can take and use for wrongdoing, but we live in such a social media and technology heavy world today that it would be hard to refrain from using social media in any situation. Even lots of classes require you to get social media accounts or use social platforms for various assignments and projects. I have had to use Twitter and Instagram for certain tasks that I needed to complete in some of my journalism and sports media classes throughout my time at college so far. With that being said, the less information you put on your profile, the less risk you are at getting exposed and your privacy invaded.

Another source you can use to help protect your privacy is enabling and consistently using a two-factor authentication on your social media sites and on other sources like Google and Apple ID. A two-factor authentication means when you login into these sites, you are asked to enter your username and password and then you’ll also need to enter a special code that you typically will receive through text that you then use to complete the login. This helps give your accounts a tighter and more secure presence which will reduce the probability of your account getting hacked. If a hacker gets into account, they will look for any of the personal information you entered like your name and birth date which can lead to them having access to info that can potentially be used to harm you. I am personally a big fan of two-factor authentication and actually started using it on all of my accounts after I got hacked on my PlayStation account last year. It was a scary sight to see somebody using my account and I remember noticing that they didn’t use my account to play any games or purchase anything. I ended up wondering at the time “why did the hacker not use that opportunity to play any of the games I had purchased via the PlayStation store or buy a new game and play it using my account?” I now realize that maybe that hacker was solely looking to use that opportunity of hacking my account to try and access my personal information including my credit card info. Thankfully, PlayStation already has a two-factor authentication enabled when it comes to accessing what credit card you have on file for your account. I also never put any of my personal info on my PlayStation account mainly because I play online a lot with random people from across the world and I don’t want them to know who I am. Circulating this back to the person who hacked me, it really goes to show that hackers are always looking for ways to gather information about us. It’s sad to know that the government is on the same degree as these hackers when it comes to accessing our information for bad reasons. Maybe this is why law enforcement has felt the urge to punish those who commit digital domestic violence or hack users on the internet… because they do the same thing to an almost similar extent.

Furthermore, lying when setting up password security questions on accounts is also an intelligent method to use in order to tighten your security on the web. Oftentimes security questions will revolve around what’s your mother’s maiden name, what elementary school did you attend or what is the name of your pet. While it may seem like these are questions that you should just put the real answer to because you might need it for when you forget your password or something, this can actually have an immense detrimental effect on the security of whatever site or account that you are using those security questions for. For instance, say a hacker is trying to break into your Twitter account, they can easily look up your Instagram profile and possibly find the name of your pet if you post a picture of your dog where you put his/her name in the caption. The hacker will then be able to answer the security question of what is the name of your pet if that’s one of the questions prevented which then gives them access to your account. It just makes more sense to develop code names for things like your pet, elementary school or favorite city to visit as well as to ensure that information of that kind is not publicly exposed on any social media accounts you may have. Finally, creating a Google Alert is a fantastic way to accurately monitor anything being said about you on the web as Google will notify you via email if there is suspicious activity about you being discussed online whether it's your name being used or a photo of you being shown on a website. This is a convenient and reliable way to monitor your privacy on the web as Google is widely considered to be the world's most popular search engine that many people use on a daily basis. With that being said, a Google Alert can serve as the difference between having your personal information being leaked online versus living a safe and secure life where random people don’t have access to your private information. 

Listed below are a couple more tips & tricks that we can use to protect ourselves from invasions of privacy...

• Always sign-out of your accounts after you're finished using them
• Clear your browser history on a consistent basis 
• Password protect your devices
• Use antivirus software on your computer

Conclusion

As you may have already figured out, I have lot to say about privacy. To me, that's a good and a bad thing. It's good because privacy really is a intriguing topic of discussion that needs to be brought on a more consistent basis. There's a lot of methods out there that can be taught and used by all of us in order to ensure more safety and security is spread worldwide. However, it is a bad thing that I have a lot to say about privacy, considering that it is such a prominent issue in our society today. Numerous individuals have seen their lives be immensely affected by the lack of online security that they have. One bad experience online leads to another one and then another one and then it gets to a certain point where these people begin to question their worth and level of respect and admiration that they have on planet earth which is unfortunate. Perhaps someday we will see the government take a stronger initiative to correct the occurrences of digital domestic violence that occur in our world and help these innocent individuals being affected by it get back to a healthier state of mind and give them an online experienced with a guaranteed sense of privacy and security.

I'm not saying we will ever live in a world where there is no conflict online because that is utterly impossible. There is too much diversity and way too many users on the internet and these social media platforms for no harm to be committed. Stupidity cannot be erased. However, it can be severely reduced by the government enforcing stronger punishments as I mentioned earlier in my blog. Turning a punishment of a $500 fine into a 20 year sentence in prison is a major difference and can help increase the awareness of digital domestic violence and other invasions of privacy that occur online. We live in a digital age today where the usage of the internet and social media is actively rising by the minute. This is an issue that must be corrected as quickly as possible, but corrected in a diplomatic and proficient manner. Our society has the resources of addressing the problem of the limited privacy we have, its just going to take for a more unified approach to come to existence in order to increase the likelihood of turning this horrendous problem into a well-defined solution.