Privacy Leak

While watching the painfully uncomfortable, real, and awe striking Ted Talk I could not believe what I was hearing. Everything from taking pictures of license plates, tapping into your online profile, and sharing explicit and private photos online. The only thing I was thinking about was “Why are there no laws against this?” Is it not illegal to tap into someone’s online life or share private pictures. Is it not morally wrong to not feel guilty for someone going through this situation?

While watching these videos the only thing I could think about was what my parents taught me growing up. What you do and say online or send through that cellphone last forever. No matter how many times you delete it or unshare it, it is in the internet and online presence for the rest of your life. Similarly to what Juan Enriquez was explaining in his Ted Talk, it is like a permanent tattoo. That simile really stuck with me. Your online self is a tattoo of who you are. Everything that you have tweeted, posted, shared, and liked is attached to you forever!

The scary part about having a virtual tattoo of your life is the privacy concerns that come with them. No matter how private you make your accounts people can still tap into them and share them. People have been listening into phone calls and monitoring our online presence for years, so now that we have even more advances technology who is to say that the ability to tap into your private life hasn’t developed overtime too.

Now that we are approaching 2020 there are so many different websites, apps, and other outlets that are available to users to exploit private information. Think about Facebook. Not only has it leaked private information already, however there is the facial recognition aspect of it too that is just personally a little too creepy for me. I can post a picture of me and my three best friends and it automatically wants to “tag” them in the picture. This facial recognition software is 100% trying to “tag” my private friends on Facebook. The software used to do this has to be analyzing people’s faces and tracking their pictures to even be able to do that.

Thanks to the discussions we have in this Media Law and Literacy class, I have been made more aware of my online presence and privacy. I understand that what I do and say online is not always kept private like it should be. Companies can track my online activity and store it away for a later use. Because of my already huge fear of privacy leaks I have taken the precautionary actions to make myself safer online and I highly encourage those who care about their privacy to do so as well. Get involved and see if your state has any laws against things such as Revenge Porn, Cyberstalking, Cyberbullying, or Cyber Sexual Harassment. See what you can do to make a difference in the leak of personal privacy near you. https://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-charges/revenge-porn-laws-by-state.html