Privacy

In his Ted Talk, Your Online Life, Permanent as a Tattoo, Juan Enriquez, compares an individual’s online presence to having a tattoo, both very permanent. The data of what everyday people so online is now being saved, not only is it a person’s online activity but their face too.  Enriquez uses the example of being in a bar and taking a picture of someone, and because of their ‘electronic tattoos’, you know everything about them before even saying anything. I am a private person so find this terrifying. It also made me feel uncomfortable to learn that there are companies who link your photograph and social media to know your likes and dislikes for people to then know what to sell you, as seen in Enriquez example. 

The next alarming Ted Talk was by Catherine Crump, the Small and Surprisingly Dangerous Detail the Police Track About You. She discussed the fact that the police are gathering information on the public via mass surveillance. Using location tracking the government monitoring where people are going in their daily lives, and combining the information to see how people interact. It is unsettling knowing that there is collected data on a person's daily travels. Modern technology has given the police the tools to acquire enough information the make a conclusion about the type of person you are. Due to Automatic License Plate Readers, the police are keeping track of where people are driving. The example Crump gave is frightening, when Mike Katz-Lacabe asked the police about the data collected from the plate reader, they got: the date, time, location, pictures of him, and if he was with someone, their picture, and pictures of him in his daily life. Knowing that kind of personal information is out that is extremely unsettling. Not only are law enforcement agencies collecting data on the publics’ movements, but also using cell towers to locate people. Both of those data collecting methods are a massive breach of privacy, and I agree with Crump that this is a threat to civil liberties. 

The third Ted Talk was How to Avoid Surveillance…with the Phone in your Pocket given by Christopher Soghoian. This Ted Talk started out the scary statement that phone companies have be providing the government help with wiretapping for over 100 years. Advancement in technology has allowed wiretapping to evolve and is now companies have “surveillance features into the very core of their networks.” Thinking about that is chilling; the fact that most people’s main means of communication is wired prioritizing surveillance. Any phone call made could have another person listening. However, Soghoian said that Silicon Valley companies have not been allowing surveillance. In fact, they have been taking measures to try and prevent surveillance. For example, Apple is one of the companies that have done this. They claim that not even Apple can see the text messages sent from iPhone to iPhone or hear the audio from phone calls.

This has greatly infuriated government officials that have been able to listen to phone calls for over 100 years. Specifically, technology companies building in encryption features and turning them on as a default is what has made the government so mad. According to Soghoian, by doing this technology have democratized encryption, and by encryption making emails, texts, and phone calls hard for the government to get. This is good, the government should not be able to access everyday people's private information. 

Surveillance systems can be dangerous to everyday people since they can be compromised and then allow foreign or harmful entities or people to monitor people. This is a huge issue with surveillance technology and can put the safety of people at risk. There is no way of controlling who is going through the information, if they are good or bad, or have helpful or harmful intentions.  

Soghoian suggested that, and I agree, networks need to be built in the most secure way as possible. Encryptions will make wiretapping more difficult and also means police will have a more difficult time catching criminals. This would be creating a world where no one can list to people phone calls or read their texts. It would be horrifying to live in a world where our government, other government, intelligence agencies, or criminals could listen to our phone calls and read our personal messages.