Blog #8 - Privacy

Privacy: Online and Offline

In today's modern world, technology is all around us. This is, in many ways, a beneficial and useful tool that allows information and communication to be available everywhere at all times. However, there are disadvantages to this always-accessible network. One such disadvantage is privacy. Living in a world that relies so heavily upon the use of technology means that relatively nothing is private or personal in terms of online presence and cybersecurity. 

These problems are now becoming more obvious and increasingly talked about among scholars, politicians, the tech industry, major companies, and the general population, overall. 

From confidential information sent through email, to social security numbers inputted on government websites, hacking can take personal information of every kind. Worse yet, hackers aren't just secret criminals typing away in dark rooms. Large and publically renowned tech companies invade your privacy just as much and probably more than the criminal masterminds of the tech world. 

According to market research, corporate advertising and marketing have a difficult relationship with online privacy. In a Ted Talk by Finn Myrstad, he describes the precise details of how tech companies deceive you into giving up any online private data you thought you owned. Andy Yen went into this more specifically in relation to email data collection and internet communication privacy (or the lack thereof). 

From Facebook's infamous invasions of privacy that were leaked to the world, to the unknown data-mining and user surveillance that occur daily, our world's reliance on technology has prompted a breach of privacy like never before.