Our not so private life

Thoughts on Privacy

After watching the Ted Talks that were linked to our class for today I was very intrigued by one certain video. This video was about how police enforcement have all of our data and are storing it just in case. They capture our license plate number wherever we go and they store it in their massive data base. So far they haven't used this data on an average human being. They are just storing it just in case. This Ted Talk in particular was very opposed to this idea. I for one, am not. I don't mind having my license plate picture taken.

I am a young female in college. My parents have my tracking wherever I go. This is because hundreds if not thousands of girls each and every day go missing in the U.S. If the government is taking pictures of where I am and keeping track of others, it will be easier for them and faster to track me down as where I am. I almost feel safer knowing that people are able to help me by using this high technology in order to solve crimes. I get where people are coming from and how it's creepy in most ways, but there are so many people out in the world who have bad intentions. With all of the crimes that are being committed, we are able to stop them faster and catch people doing horrible things. 

The other video that I thought was interesting was how Apple is actually helping us maintain our privacy when using their apps for FaceTiming and messages. It is unheard of companies helping their consumers maintain their privacy. If there is a way for them to make our devices private on all of our apps that would be even better.

I believe that government is only listening on our calls and other because it all comes down to safety and that people are just nosey. If one doesn't have anything to hide, then there really isn't a problem. I get why people are so against this, but if a major terror event happens, the government is able to use the information that they have previously collected and help solve the problem to whatever has happened. 

Reflection of Group 1's Presentation

Group 1

This past class we had an EOTO class period. This stands for "Each one Teach one." For this certain EOTO, a group had a certain amount of terms and had to explain to the class what each term meant. I chose to narrow in on group one's presentation. This group had terms such as: Propaganda, Disinformation, Educational Exchange Act, Total Information Awareness and False Flag. In particular I thought two terms that were taught to the class were very interesting and those were propaganda and the Education Exchange Act.

Focusing on propaganda, this is the spreading of ideas or information to overall help the public. This was initially to spread fear. It's this time of year that politicians are campaigning a lot in order to gain voters and they are doing this by bashing their opponents either on the same side of them or on the opposite political side. We are able to see different commercials about political opponents and watch them tell the audience fake information about them. The whole reason as to doing this is to gain more votes for them and to make the audience less inclined to vote for someone based on the fake facts that have been given to them. Down below I have placed examples of propaganda for this upcoming election term for 2020.

As you can see above, this is a form of propaganda from the Trump campaign. The middle one is a great example because this is spreading fear to the public because it makes them question if America's safety is really at risk. Some might believe that since this is from the Trump campaign; he will be able to insure safety to the nation and therefore they will vote for him. 

The other term that I thought was interesting to learn about was the Educational Exchange Act. This is when the United States creates a better understanding of our country and teaches it to other countries. I feel as though this act has been very beneficial to the many nations because now in the business world, if you don't speak English and you want your company to be widely known, then you won't succeed. Most deals are done in English and many people know our customs. Since we are spreading knowledge about our country, we should be doing the same here. Many people from the U.S. are not from here and it would be nice to learn about other customs that are practiced around the world.

Cutting the Cord

Has your family cut the cord?

This has been a popular topic to discuss about since 2010. As trends come and go, cutting the cord is one of the newer "trends" that families are doing. So what is "cutting the cord?" The official definition of it is, "the process of cutting the cable connections in order to change to a cheaper TV channel subscription." source. There are so many different outlets to watch television now that are much more popular than cable tv now. The top competitors for cable networks would be Netflix, Hulu and now since November 12, 2019, Disney+. How did cord cutting become a thing and why has it lasted so long?

We started to see this trend in 2010 and from that point on, it has been growing. Many cable companies can't stay alive nowadays because of all of the other options. There are multiple advantages to cutting the cord. For one, it is so much cheaper and people are able to watch movies and/or tv shows without any interruptions. Since this topic has come up, I was talking to my roommate and her family has cut the cord and they now have YouTube TV. She lives in a very secluded area where the cable is unable to reach her, therefore; her family uses YouTube TV and they also have a Netflix subscription. With positives towards moving forward with cutting the cord, there are also disadvantages.

If one subscribes to just Netflix and cuts the cord; they are unable to stream live tv and they won't have access to some very popular channels such as HGTV. They would have to subscribe to other platforms that offer other variety of channels.

Netflix is recognizing their competition and about a year ago, their "Netflix Originals" have sky rocketed with popularity. In 2019, Netflixs' revenue was over $5.2 billion dollars and is still growing. The newest platform that has been added is Disney+. Disney+ has all of the favorite old shows and movies. They are also cheaper per month and the target audience is more geared towards millennials. The platform has only been available to the public for two days, but their subscriptions has been very popular and people were also able to pre-subscribe to the platform. Almost more than 2 million people subscribed to Disney+ on the first day and I know my family was part of that 2 million.

There are plenty of benefits to cutting the cord, but as of right now I believe that cutting cord completely would not benefit my family. We still have cable and we also have a subscription to Netflix and now Disney+. My dad is able to still access all of his sports channels while his kids are able to enjoy movies and shows from their childhood.

Online Presence

Look up your name and what do you find?

Today in class we learned about different privacy laws and how most social media platforms and websites are able to watch you while you are active on their platform while also not active. Many people today are starting realize this information and they are not so thrilled about it. What most of them don't know is that when they first began to use the application, they agreed to let the apps use their information in the "Terms and Agreements." Who actually reads that long contract though? Exactly, no one, because everyone is so focused on setting up their new social media platform or if it is a website and they agree to use cookies; they are wanting to move forward on the website.

Facebook has been the most concerning social media platform that has been invading everyone's privacy and they dominate all platforms in general because they also own Instagram now. Nowadays to make consumers lives easy, they have started linking the login to Facebook to other accounts. An example would be if you don't have an account for Pinterest, you are able to login through your Facebook account and all of a sudden you now have a Pinterest account without having a new login. What people don't realize is that if you login through your Facebook account on any platform, they are allowed to store the data that you have created on different applications. The main question is why are they able to do this? They are able to do this because they are classified under a Private Activator and since they are private, people are not able to fight against them because only the government can not violate your rights.

The most popular social media sites that I use is Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook in that order. My Instagram account is not private so anyone is able to find me and I don't have the secured privacy settings that Facebook has to offer. Since I use my Instagram and I am aware that it is open to the public, I make sure I don't post anything inappropriate. Most of my photos consist of my friends at family-friendly places. I make sure what I post is age appropriate because I have extended family members on there as well as potential people who are interested in hiring me are able to see what I do. 

I believe that in today's world, many people in my generation are giving away their information without realizing the repercussions for it. We live in a world today where everyone is living in fast pace and they don't have time to truly look at what they are agreeing for the websites and platforms to do. This can seriously be damaging if someone wants their privacy to stay completely private. It is hard for one to stay completely off the web, but there are different ways to stay and keep private by using precautions.