Foot: You're Leaving a Digital Trail. What about Privacy? article

“You’re leaving a digital trail, what about privacy?” is an extremely fascinating article. For as long as I have been alive, privacy has been in and out of the news headlines and in many conversations. Though I think that everyone is entitled to their own privacy, at what cost is it to national security and even your own life. I remember right after 9/11 occurred there was a public outrage that the government was screening calls to find terrorists that could be in the country. I remember being extremely worried that they were listening to me talk to my then best friend for hours on the phone about television shows that we watched together. I worried they would call my parents and tell them what I was up to, and I thought that as an American I had the right to my privacy. 

 

Now that I’m all grown up, I feel torn. In a sense, I believe that the government would use this technology that is developing today to help keep the country safe, but then again I think they may just use for their own purposes. I ask you this, if you were screening a call and heard your opponent for a political office talking about something you could use to slander their name and reputation would you keep that information to yourself? I believe that we all face these questions at some point, and hopefully you say you won’t expose it unless it is illegal, but we are all competitive creatures. As for this new technology having privacy settings, most common Americans aren’t going to know how to use these defenses to help them.

If the government has access to the privacy as well then how is it really private? One quote that disturbed me is, “… misused, collective intelligence tools could create an Orwellian future on a level Big Brother could only dream of.” I don’t think I would want the government knowing all about my day, who I spoke too, what I said, when I ate, drank, and slept. Some things need to remain private, but I think technology today gives us little opportunity for this. It scares me to think that my students could be targeted as a possible threat if they fly off the handle for a moment and say something stupid. Just because you say you want to hurt someone doesn’t mean you would actually do this. As for using this article in my classroom, I’m sure I would use it to educate my students on the fact that the Internet is infinite. Once something is said, you can’t take it back. I’ve been that age, I know hormones are running through you and the smallest things get you mad, but there is no privacy on the Internet. No matter how many privacy settings are on you facebook, myspace, or blogspot, someone can read it if they tried hard enough.