Technology and Privacy

    Technology, specifically the computer and its connection to the internet, are fantastic inventions that have changed everything about me, my friends’, and family’s lives. However, the issues discovered on various Ted Talk videos made me reconsider my relationship with this technology. Juan Enriquez spoke about how you have a technological footprint, and it is “as permanent as a tattoo”. This means any and everything that has been said across the internet can and may be exposed in the future. Many people post embarrassing things that are soon deleted, or text each other crude jokes. These things may be from many, many years ago where people have changed since then, but can still be socially punished for; i.e. James Gunn.

        The government and large monopoly like organizations are actually (directly or indirectly) responsible for a lot of these breaches. For example, your emails are not well protected, and can be accessed by said sources above. If collected, they can create a biography on you about your likes, daily schedules, who you contact- and therefore work with- most, and other tidbits about yourself. The government might even use this technology to categorize people to see if they would be a threat to the United States of America. The government can do two things to combat this; they must regulate organizations and themselves from stealing data. This is difficult to manage, as it presumes that they will keep the best interests at heart and not continue to stalk for their parasitic need.