04 - Privacy

04 - Privacy TedTalk

Carrington Finney

    In a digital age, concerns of privacy live in the minds of nearly every indivudal who interacts with technology. Gen-Z and Gen-X live in constant reminders of their "digital footprints," and websites can be used to gain access of knowledge to virtually any person you could think of. 

    Online, images can be traced back to people or can be reconfigured using AI platforms, social media apps trace finger strokes and movement on their platform, and personal information is shared across apps. Even offline personal privacy is violated, through the tracking of license plates and cell phones by local and federal governments. 

    As someone who likes to keep the roads hot, this bothers me. As mentioned in the TedTalk, it's not as much the fact that there are license plate cameras, but moreso the corruption that has taken place because of these small invasions of privacy. As attorney Catherine Crump mentions in her short lecture, exploitation has occured at the expense of the very law enforcement meant to protect us. And though these breeches of privacy are small, they have a massive impact on government transparency. 

    Although these issues are prevelant, they are just the tip of the iceberg. In a high-tech world, measures of privacy breeching are reaching further than before. Technology enables the capture and storage of moments that would've been otherwise private, making it easier to alter the videos or hold blackmail. Additionally, the government primarily enables this behavior: It's currently legal in 37 states to wiretap a phone or record a conversation with one-party consent. This bleeds into social media as well, where apps collect data and sell it to marketing companies or CRMs to predict trends.

    Government surveillance in the digital age is a double-edged sword. In a way, there's no escape from it. Thinking about my everyday life, I use technology for practically everything; I use it to do my school work, contact friends and family, even order the food I eat every day. Without technology, my day-to-day life would not succeed, no doubt. Even limiting app access would severely affect my algorithm and therefore affect my direct influences. In implementing surveillance techniques in the fiber of social media's existence, there is no true way to separate the two. 

    In recent years, the issue with privacy has become more complex and entangled into our everyday lives. In the grand scheme of things, there is little we can do unless we advocate for change worldwide.