Assignment 6: What Does Privacy Mean Today?
- Questions
Q1: Within the last 5 years of using smart technology, has it ever occurred to you to think that maybe our reliance in the devices we use today can also be used as means to invade our barriers of privacy because of the massive integration it has had in our society?
Q2: Do you think, as a society, we have lowered our expectations of our privacy due to the overutilization of surveillance and smart tracking technology in the jurisdiction of our government and state of modern safety procedures?
2. Interview Link
3. Link to Transcript
4. Argument
The exponential growth of technology in the recent years helped society as a whole lower their guard and expectation on their privacy because as the digital age advances, so do policies and jurisdictions. Big companies nowadays are able to monitor our wants and needs, and as a society we never blink twice because it is considered to be “beneficial” and in the name of convenience. But not many realize that can be a problem, and the compromisation of private lives can lead to malicious act of ill intent towards the user and could possibly ruin their lives. It can be in forms of hacking or blackmailing; the list goes on.
After the interview, I realized that people know enough that our privacy is monitored and/or compromised by big companies in the ToS. My interviewee brought up the situation with China, and exclaims that they’re “overstepping their bounds in the name of privacy and safety” which is true. China’s Skynet program (the ones presented in class), showed a society where the government truly believes their inherent cyber monitoring is for the benefit of the country as a whole; but we really do not know if there are also intents of malice. It’s crazy to think that forms of over surveillance can be chalked up to nation leader exclaiming it is for the safety of others. It makes me think, if you don’t trust it’s people, why should the people trust you?
