Intro
- Remember the days when you could be completely genuine to yourself, and not worry about how the world would judge your silliness or appearance? (VISUAL 1)
- Well these days seem long gone, as today, in the era of snapchat and social media, these moments of genuinity are almost impossible to come upon. (VISUAL 2)
- In other words, as connectivity and on-the-go sharing have become more and more widespread, privacy has declined to a new normal that accepts constant invasion into our lives (VISUAL 3)
- However, what if this shift away from privacy and towards constant connection was bigger than just that which social media and smartphones have inspired?
- This is in fact the case, as the situation is far larger than that and continues to grow larger by the day. As technology continues to improve, so too will the parasite that is privacy suppression, as aggravated by government, corporation, and individual.
Body
- Government
- The goal of a government is to run the nation, which involves monitoring citizens and technological advancement has just facilitated that scrutinizing. (VISUAL 4)
- With more computing power, governments have discovered the power of surveillance technologies. One of the most prominent examples of a surveillance agency is America’s own NSA. (VISUAL 5)
- Although designed with American citizens in mind, hoping to increase national security, the agency is involved in near-constant controversy.
- This is because the NSA notoriously collects very large amounts of American “private” data, and leaks from a certain American exile Edward Snowden only served to exacerbate the problem, alerting Americans to just how much data the NSA holds. (VISUAL 6)
- Overall, government-sponsored agencies like the NSA play a large role in privacy’s decline.
- Corporations
- Besides government influence, the companies we’re so fond of to play a part in data collection. (VISUAL 7)
- There are two main reasons for these companies to undertake in customer surveillance: internal and external incentive.
- As far as internal incentive goes, the companies hope to compile common user-behavior.
- This allows them to streamline their company’s user-experience with the goal of attracting more customers.
- For example, picture a well-made website, and one that’s near-impossible to navigate. It’s probably more likely that you would buy a product from the well-designed site than the poorly made one, given the product is the same on both sites. (VISUAL 8)
- Externally, per the FISA act, companies are incentivized by the government to hand over the data they collect, providing more revenue to the companies for more information. (VISUAL 9)
- As far as internal incentive goes, the companies hope to compile common user-behavior.
- Individual
- Beyond government and corporate surveillance, our own internet decisions are the biggest influence on privacy loss.
- Without our social media obsession and lifestyle that depends so heavily on the online world, there would be a far smaller data pool for the larger surveillance organizations. That means we have to weigh lifestyle vs privacy in our decision to protest against privacy. (VISUAL 10)
- Besides that, safe and responsible internet use, such as not falling for “free iPad giveaway” scams or the likes, are critical in not letting information we don’t want released be released. (VISUAL 11)
Conclusion
- Technological growth won’t die, nor should it. (VISUAL 12) It’s a boon to everyday convenience, productivity, and entertainment, and our harnessing it is an essential part of our transition into an ever developing modern world.
- That means we have only one place to look to try to regain privacy in our lives: ourselves. (VISUAL 13)
- Looking at the big picture, surveillance provides a net benefit to the world, as it has applications in cryptography, national security, and internet optimization if undertaken responsibly.
- For that reason, it’s unlikely government and corporation-induced privacy loss will go away.
- Instead, to get individual privacy back, if you want it, it’s important to make smart online sharing and connectivity decisions, while thinking very carefully about the level of connectedness you hope to have in your life.
- If you don’t care about your privacy, by all means continue to post every selfie you want on your public instagram page, but just be wary that it’s very possible bureaucrats are judging the quality of your duck face. (VISUAL 14)
- Looking at the big picture, surveillance provides a net benefit to the world, as it has applications in cryptography, national security, and internet optimization if undertaken responsibly.
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http://www.techfaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Snapchat-Logo.png
http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/design/2012/6/new_twitter_logo.jpg
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http://blog.heartland.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/no-privacy.png
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http://www.studiohajo.nl/wp-content/uploadedImages/2014/01/nsa-logo.gif
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https://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.M00a293a7c71075f4155ad94b4101bca8H1&pid=15.1
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http://naceorg.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/facebook_logo.jpg
http://www.journaldugeek.com/files/2013/06/mediateur-Google.jpg
http://www.extremetech.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/new-microsoft-logo-square-large.jpg
https://cbsbaltimore.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/walmart.jpg
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http://www.topdesignmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/220.png
http://productsreviews2013.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/amazon-home-page.jpg
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FISA
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http://theoplife.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/balance_scale.jpg
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http://www.techjaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/yahoo-ipad-scam.png
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http://assets1.bigthink.com/system/idea_thumbnails/42038/original/future_technology.jpg?1326990725
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YOU
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