Is Your Privacy Really That Private?

In a word, no. Our privacy today is not private. Pretty much anyone can access any information from anybody from anywhere if they have the right tools. This is the last blog post for my Media Law and Literacy class, and one of our primary focuses in the class, among other things, has been privacy and what that means in today's society. Fifty years ago, there was no Internet so everyone's information was private, which according to the Oxford dictionary, means "the state or condition of being free from being observed or disturbed by other people." In other words, there was not much people could do to access someone else's personal information without their consent. Today, however, that is a much different story. In several different TEDTalks I watched and listened to, the main theme was that information today is not private, mainly due to the development of different kinds of technology. In one Talk, the speaker talked about how the license plate readers work. They take pictures of peoples license plates and convert them into text a computer can read, and it logs this information to track where everybody goes and who they are with. These cameras are noticeable at intersections to record who runs red lights, but the cameras can also be attached to the sides of police cars, which is something I did not know about. These cameras take pictures of virtually everyone's license plates to be logged in a computer. This can easily be accessed by the police station, but also the government. 

There was another TEDTalk where the speaker talked about a child's toy, a doll named Cayla. This doll can be connected to an app to interact with children as is advertised, but in the terms and conditions, it says the doll can listen to and send recordings of conversation that happens in the comfort of people's own homes. If that doesn't creep you out, I don't know what will. To know that someone can always be listening to you in your own home is a scary thought. 

I think privacy today is a serious issue. With all that's going on in the world politically, I think we need privacy now more than ever. There was another TEDTalk where the speaker spoke of a new Internet, and what he said resonated with me. He said "we need to build a new Internet where privacy is no longer just an option, but also the default." I don't know that we necessarily need to build a new Internet, but with how easy it is to access someone's information just by scanning a picture of their face, we do need more privacy in our lives.