Privacy Online and Off

I use various social media platforms on a daily basis; Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and at least 3 more for both personal and business related uses. I have known for quite a long time that my information was being collected and most likely sold to the highest bidder. However what I have not gauged was the scale that this was being done at. It goes farther than social media, our federal and state government, other countries, irrelevant companies, hackers… who doesn’t have my data?

One of the speakers in the videos introduced the idea of having digital tattoos. Now when I said that I was aware of data-mining, I figured that it was no big deal if Facebook new I like to buy clothes. But Juan Enriquez went into detail about how everything I ‘Like’, or post, or search is branded on me, and that soon enough all of that information will be available and completely visible to anyone as if they were using facial recognition. 

You might think that this is outrageous, the government should be the ones protecting us from companies like Facebook, but you’d be surely mistaken. The U.S. Government is the biggest abuser of this data-mining concept. In Cathrine Crump’s talk she went into detail about the ways that local police departments use license plate cameras to track basically your every move when you use a car. Not only are they collecting this type of data, but through numerous seizures and purchases our own government stockpiles every single one of our digital tattoos. Tracking us, watching, us, learning about us, and most importantly judging us.

All tech companies aren’t evil however. Many companies aim to usher us into a new era, one of privacy and anonymity. People use these companies’ products to improve their cyber security like they would if they were to install an alarm in their home. VPNs, Virtual Private Networks, are the most popular and simplest way to stay safe and encrypt your data to protect from unwanted watchers. These systems use privately owned servers to connect you to the internet and send you 2-way encrypted packets containing all of the data and content you would normally use. Ensuring you stay safe!

-Nick Letts