Tuesday, November 12, 2019
Privacy
As the rise of new media continues to impact all areas of society, the issue of privacy and confidentiality has become a major concern for many people. Since our lives have become intertwined with new media, it is important that we be more aware of what we make public. In a culture that is centered around consumerism, companies will go to extreme, and often unethical lengths, to turn a profit. A perfect example of this is Facebook's data scandal, in which, it become known that the company had mined its user's data and sold it to third-parties. Unfortunately, people are commonly oblivious to the fact that many platforms use their data in similar contexts. While companies should make more of an effort to stray away from this, it is our responsibility to read the privacy policies of websites we sign up for, as we never know where our data might be going. In addition to this, all types of websites are often hacked, and consequently, many scams have been developed. With user's data and passwords being revealed, sites will try to threaten individuals for their own personal gain. Knowing this, it is important to stay alert and cautious in a world of new media.
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Hi Eva,
ReplyDeleteYes, it’s so true when it comes to privacy it’s important that user be aware that many companies would take the data, they collect on them and sell it to a third party, which is unfortunate since they also start to lose people’s confidence. However, the government also does the same thing but at a much wider scale by forcing social networking sites and cellphone companies to hand over the user’s personal data, even though in many cases this is illegal. In an article titled ‘N.S.A. Triples Collection of Data From U.S. Phone Companies’ by Charlie Savage (2018) had stated that “The National Security Agency vacuumed up more than 534 million records of phone calls and text messages from American telecommunications providers like AT&T and Verizon last year — more than three times what it collected in 2016” (para. 1). Another N.S.A. program that is codenamed ‘PRISM’ collects stored internet communications which Greenwald and MacAskill (2013) have said that N.S.A. had also obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants which is scary when you think about it. It begs the question is privacy and confidentiality dead in America or do we as new media users still have some level of control. This brings my last point in which the European Union has created Europe's digital privacy legislation to protect its citizens online, the statute is called the General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR. In an article titled ‘What is GDPR? Everything you need to know about the new general data protection regulations by Danny Palmer (2019) had specified that;
“At its core, GDPR is a new set of rules designed to give EU citizens more control over their personal data. It aims to simplify the regulatory environment for business so both citizens and businesses in the European Union can fully benefit from the digital economy. The reforms are designed to reflect the world we're living in now and brings laws and obligations - including those around personal data, privacy and consent - across Europe up to speed for the internet-connected age. Fundamentally, almost every aspect of our lives revolves around data. From social media companies, to banks, retailers, and governments - almost every service we use involves the collection and analysis of our personal data. Your name, address, credit card number and more all collected, analyzed and, perhaps most importantly, stored by organizations.” (para. 5-7)
This is the reason why when we go online many sites have pop-ups or banners letting us know that they employ cookies and are also collecting the data and information users provide when they access the site. Sadly, even though we also benefit from the GDPR, we still don’t get the same level of protection as those who live in Europe and if you find your personal information or a picture online that you want taken down, the process herein the US is an almost futile effort which is why we as citizens and consumers should be asking our Politicians and congress to pass laws to protect our data and hold companies accountable when they suffer data breaches.
References
Greenwald, G., & MacAskill, E. (2013, June 7). NSA Prism program taps into user data of Apple, Google and others. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/06/us-tech-giants-nsa-data.
Palmer, D. (2019, May 23). What is GDPR? Everything you need to know about the new general data protection regulations. Retrieved from https://www.zdnet.com/article/gdpr-an-executive-guide-to-what-you-need-to-know/.
Savage, C. (2018, May 4). N.S.A. Triples Collection of DataFrom U.S. Phone Companies.
Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/04/us/politics/nsa-surveillance-2017-annual-report.html.
Hi Eva,
ReplyDeletePrivacy is a very important matter is todays world. When we log into these websites or other various applications we are oblivious to what truly is the privacy agreements that are set in place. Like you said we need to and should read the privacy agreements that majority of us just agree to.