Privacy That Might Not Be So Private

How private is your privacy actually? Privacy is the state or condition of being free from being observed or disturbed by other people. However online privacy is slightly different. Online privacy is the privacy and security level of personal data published via the internet.

With watching a few TED talks on this very issue it made me wonder how private really is our online self? One TED Talk by Juan Enriquez explained it best. He explained that by everything that we post to social media creates a "digital tattoo." Something that will always be with you long after you are gone from this earth. As an individual who uses social media this was quite surprising to me. Even though you may put that photo or video into your private, it has a way of becoming on a public platform. Now a days, you are having to cleanup your online self because those are the locations that current/future employers will look first.

Another TED Talk was with Finn Lützow-Holm Myrstad. He explained how tech companies are deceiving you to give up your privacy and data. The main example he used was with a talking doll that connects to the internet and can have a conversation with it. However, the disturbing part was that anyone with a smartphone could connect to it and communicate with you or your child from upto 60 ft away.

We are living in an ever changing tech world where everything that we use on a daily basis is essentially recording and monitoring us in some sort of capacity. The slightly disturbing part is that a lot more of the things we use will become an online device that can be controlled remotely. Is this good or bad for society? That is the big question. Personally I believe it to be both good and bad. Good in the matter that it can help make our lives easier. Help us multitask and is a convenient tool to have when needing to look something up quick. But bad in the fact that this is just another device that can track our every movement and record our personal conversations.

Whistleblower

A big topic in recent news was about the Trump-Ukraine whistleblower. In regards to a phone call that President Donald J. Trump made to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky back in July 2019. So what exactly is a whistleblower? A whistleblower is an individual who exposes secretive information or activity that is deemed illegal, unethical, or not correct within a private or public organization.

Currently in the United States, Whistleblowing is not illegal. However, it can get people into a lot of trouble and potentially the loss of their job. There are some cases in which the government may consider whistleblowing illegal. One whistleblower case is with Edward Snowden on him exposing the National Security Agency (NSA) about illegally tracking and viewing American citizens without a federal warrant following the USA PATRIOT Act. The Act was passed in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City.

Propaganda and the Media

In today's media especially the use of propaganda has been at an all time high. Nowadays it is hard to determine what is fact and fiction from the mainstream media. What happened to how journalist report? How did we change course to decide to publish a possible false narrative to the public? Today's implications from these sort of acts have caused people to be subpoenaed to Congress, an impeachment inquire against the President of the United States, and the public not know what media outlet they can trust anymore.

These sort of acts can shape society in a very negative way. We once again are being divided. Not by race but by what side of the political spectrum we are on, whether it is Republican or Democrat. People are being judged, hurt, and possibly even killed by expressing their feelings about an individual.
This sort of situation affects individuals of all race, age, sexuality, gender, ethnicity. We are all affected on how the information is released into the public and it is up to the public to call out on major media companies for the false narrative that they may produce. That is what is great about America. The ability to call out our government, elected officials, or even media outlets on the potential wrongdoing they might have committed.
This affects me in a way because sometimes I do not even know what source to trust anymore since I can never decipher from fact or fiction. This sort of problem affects my and future generations because the precedent that we display today and especially for this upcoming election will show either how great or how doomed America is in the future.

It is up to us in the here and now to try and fix what we can. Place people accountable for the criminal actions they have committed and ensure that the government is protecting its citizens against enemies foreign and domestic.

Your Online Presence using Social Media

Social Media. The act of communication through a interactive computerized device to share information and creative ideas. In an article from DreamGrow updated in July, 2019 ranked popular social networking applications. Facebook came top with over 2.2 billion users, YouTube with 1.9 billion, Instagram following at one billion, then Twitter at 336 million. The newest social media app on the rise is TikTok a Chinese application launched by ByteDance in 2017. As of February, 2019 the app over one billion users.

The question we must ask however is what sort of footprint are we placing by participating in such applications? I have a personal website as well where I post my latest filmography and projects. I am an individual who has applications such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and TikTok. However, I am very conscientious with what I post on such social media platforms. The sort of personal information that I have on those services is very limited and private. I keep a relative close eye on what sort of personal information that I have online.

Personally I think the use of social media is good and bad for society. It is good because it gives users the ability to communicate with people all over the world and stay connected them. It also allows individuals to express themselves in their own ways and create interesting trends while doing it. However, their is a downside. Like every other platform out there, their is always going to be haters and people who strive to bring others down. With the greater accessibility to the apps cyberbullying has been on the rise since the early 2010s. Personally, applications like TikTok are making a good impression on society. It has allowed individuals to express their creativity and get famous while doing it. Even current celebrities such as Will Smith, Ellen DeGeneres, Jimmy Fallon, and Howie Mandel are using it.

Diffusion of Innovations: Facebook

Facebook

Facebook was created on February 4, 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg, Dustin Moskovitz, Chris Hughes, Eduardo Saverin. Zuckerberg wanted to create an application and website where people could post pictures and messages that their friends could see and eventually like. Within the first 10 months Facebook had already reached one million active users. With the rollout of new features and more accessibility through the mobile app along with other applications such as Instagram and Whatsapp. User numbers continued to grow with over two billion people people using Facebook every month in June, 2017. Whatsapp reached over one billion users in July, 2017. Instagram had over one billion users per month in June, 2018.

Why did Facebook take off so quick? I believe Facebook has been doing really well is the product that they have created and the accessibility and features that they have make it a valuable product. I think many people became early adapters to the application because of what they can do with it. It was another way to share photos, videos, and post with friends and the public. It was another way of marketing to individuals and talk about events that are taking place near a specific person. With every upside however, there must be a down. Facebook currently has been under much fire for privacy concerns, censoring specific political media and pages for the 2016 and 2020 Presidential elections, along with the most recent concerns about Facebook's planned Cryptocurrency, Libra. As far as negative consequences go just like every big corporation there are always going to be individuals who are always questioning what you are doing and how you are doing it. I think Facebook has put out a great product that has allowed billions of people to now be connected to one another even on opposite sides of the world. Sure it has somethings that it can surely fix especially when it comes to privacy and the potential breaches of such.

The Check on Governmental Power

The Check on Governmental Power and the First Amendment

Vincent Blasi is a theorist and First Amendment scholar who is a professor at Columbia Law School in New York, New York. He is best known for his "Check Value" theory of free speech and free press clauses of the First Amendment.

His theory suggest that the power of the press has the ability to "check the abuse of power by public officials." This states that journalist and news organizations have an obligation to research and criticize public officials if they are in the process of abusing the power that they were elected to do. Most common cases have been with U.S. Presidents, such as Nixon within Watergate and Clinton with Clintongate.

Currently, we are dealing with the same issue with President Trump on if he abused the powers of the Presidency. This is all following a July, 2019 phone conversation with the Ukrainian President, which then lead to an impeachment proceeding by House Democrats into the President. This all got started allegedly when the President threatened to withhold financial aid to Ukraine.

I feel a check on Governmental power is big when it comes to elected officials who hold high level jobs. If any one officials is doing something that is illegal or in clear violation of any law then they should be reprimanded for their actions. In relation to the First Amendment, it should be journalist and news organizations to determine what potential crime such official has committed and investigate the possible wrongdoing without being punished for it.

The most meaningful idea that I have taken away from this would be that the main operation of free press is to develop and investigate information of the electorate that the public can understand.

Drones

Drones

Drones. The newest form of aerial videography and survey. Drones have been in use by governmental purposes since the early 2000s, but have not gotten to be available to consumers since the mid 2010s. Today's drones are being used in a variety of different professions such as, government, agriculture, motion pictures, construction, and recreational use. Drones are playing now key roles in how we live. They are making our lives easier everyday whether it is through drone shipping, surveying a disaster area, spreading pesticides for crops, or getting that really cool shot that no device could have gotten before.

Drones have gotten smarter since the first drone was released in 2010. Now they come with obstacle avoidance systems and intelligent tracking, along with airspace warning notices.

Drones are paving the way for new aerial filming and surveying. Cannot wait to see what comes next!