We Want Privacy, but Can’t Stop Sharing

In this New York Times article, Kate Murphy talks about how there is no privacy on the internet. She mentions how the controlling authorities do not care because it proves a guilty conscience. ‘If you aren’t doing anything wrong, then you should not mind.’ This viewpoint of the higher authorities puts the general population in a very unwanted and uncomfortable position. However, most people do not seem to notice the consequence of this issue. From Snowden’s revelations to the Equifax hack depicts the vulnerability to cyber snooping abundantly clear.

As time passes, people are seeming to realize how public data might be used against them. Someone might not get a job due to a social media post. There has been little discussion on privacy and why its important to an individual because all the attention is on the legal aspects of privacy and how it restricts global trade. There is no legal agreement that categories information as private information. Additionally, it’s hard to argue for privacy when people eagerly share their personal information on social media. In class, we learned that the Fair Information Practice Principles governs the US Privacy laws. However, what we lack is a foundation that helps the general population and not just the corporations.

 

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/sunday-review/we-want-privacy-but-cant-stop-sharing.html

2 thoughts on “We Want Privacy, but Can’t Stop Sharing

  1. As an avid social media and internet user, I can agree that I find myself sharing things all of the time, even when I don’t want to. I think an interesting point to add to this conversation would be the fact that as technology is becoming more and more prevalent in our every day lives, sometimes we have no choice but to share information. I think a group of people that are affected by this more are the elderly. An example to show just how frustrating this could be for them is something that happened to me over spring break. My great great aunt recently ordered an Ancestry DNA testing kit. At 84 years old she wanted to explore more about her heritage and where she was from. She asked me to help her do it and mail it in. I quickly realized that an online account needed to be set up. My aunt was quickly discouraged, and pretty annoyed as she didn’t have an email and didn’t understand why everything needed to be linked to an online account. She didn’t want to give her phone number or email to this website. She simply wanted to send in her DNA, and get mailed back the results. We are now forced in many ways to give personal information to others and share things online just to be able to participate in things. To help illustrate this, take this fact coming from an InDepth article: in 2000, 14% of people 65 and older were online users; in 2016, that number rose to 67%. More and more people are forced to keep up with the times and be an active online user. So yes, while people are sharing information and not really understanding the consequences, sometimes people also have no choice.

    Source: https://www.deseretnews.com/article/865685302/How-social-media-and-technology-are-changing-the-lives-of-the-elderly.html

  2. I liked this post because it is a very popular topic in today’s society. I agree that it is hard to distinguish “private information” on the internet. Nowadays, everyone posts everything on the internet. People are constantly sharing things on Facebook, twitter, instagram, snapchat, etc. Many times, these posts are not necessarily appropriate for social media. Like your blog post said, it can even prevent people from getting jobs. I know two people who had job opportunities and lost them because the employers looked at their social media and decided not to employ them because of inappropriate content. This inappropriate content could qualify as “private information” but these people willingly chose to post their private information on social media. It is hard to have privacy in today’s world with the internet because people are constantly posting and people are constantly checking. Take snapchat stories for example. People post stories of what they’re doing constantly, which completely takes privacy out of the equation.

    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/sam-cohen/privacy-risk-with-social-_b_13006700.html

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