CCT205-Lab5

5. Talk about your views/concerns about the future of privacy. Does privacy really matter?

Technology is testing the standards and expectations of privacy. In the last decade we have even began to question whether privacy is a right. Personally, I think privacy is without a doubt a right. I find it unfortunate and frightening how much you can learn about a person through different applications and internet searches. Applications allow someone to locate people's addresses, phone numbers, and a ton of other personal information. Google earth has pictures of billions of peoples' homes. For example, when I need directions to someone's address I usually check the Google Maps 'street view' so that I know what the house looks like for when I arrive. I think its a personal safety issue how easily someone can access and locate other people. Years ago, if you didn't know someone and they didn't give you their address it was quite difficult to contact them. I feel like society and culture has changed so much. I envy the days when you only knew your circle of friends. In a sense I think we valued those relationships more because we didn't have the ability to contact anyone at any moment even if they're on the other side of earth. This is slightly off topic, but I watched Forest Gump tonight and I love that movie! It's of course unrealistic but the lifestyle of that time era wasn't so fast pace and the relationships were different. People buried their loves ones in the backyard or knew the school bus drivers name and knew the city Sheriff. I suppose our fast pace and largely populated society is bound to lack privacy. In a sense, because we are so populated and because we live in a networking world, its natural for us to want to know more about the people we're connecting with. Instead of trying to know all thirty or so neighbours and coworkers, we find relief in being able to find a little bit about them through other ways. One aspect that bothers me about Internet privacy is people can just hide behind their computers, so it makes it easy for them to make unmoral decisions. It's a lot different when you know someone personally then just through virtual lurking or simulated interaction.

The Media is more than guilty of impeding on people's privacy. The news rarely hides anything. For instance, the Police Officer that recently passed away from his terrible accident during the police chase of a man who stole a snow plow and went ramped in the streets of Toronto. That was a heart-wrenching situation and I'm sure his family doesn't want to constantly see replays of medical crews pumping his chest and trying to revive him. I just find that terrible. We need some sort of privacy when it comes to what they are allowed to broadcast to the whole city. That story even made CNN news with the title "Man steals snow plow and kills Cop." People deserve more privacy than that. We are bombarded with all of this information of other people without the consent of that person or their family. Another example that comes to mind is my uncle. I won't use names, but he was arrested for something that ultimately had nothing to do with him. The company he worked for was being criminally charged, but his charges were dropped. Even though he had nothing to do with it the media news outlets continued to repeatedly play a video of him being arrested, along with a few other co-workers. Even though his charges were dropped his face and name were continually abused. People's privacy needs to be better protected. Technology makes it difficult to do so, but I think it's important. I've had a few friends along with myself where someone(?) steals our photos and uses our identity to create facebook and myspace accounts. That's creepy. Also, even if you personally don't use these social networking and internet sites, friends of yours might post pictures of you and use your name. Privacy is difficult to control now. If someone wants to find you or information about you, they will. So in regards to the future of privacy, it's not looking encouraging. We may as well willingly post all of our information on an open website for everyone to see. Oh wait, most people on facebook do that! As for me I like to keep my privacy settings as private as possible.