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.