Scary Facts, But Not Surprising

The lack of privacy that we deal with isn’t a surprising fact for me. I accepted that I hardly have any privacy because it’s the price of having free access to social media apps. Social Dilemma, a Netflix documentary, shows us that we became the product that is being sold. Selling our data to companies allows them to push us to buy products or stay on apps for hours.

When watching the documentary, I believe that they exaggerated some scenes. Especially regarding the family scenes, however, interviews with past employees and experts not only shows us how addictive social media is, but how it can be damaging as well.

The current generation and the next are currently are going to grow up with technology. Technology might become more addictive as time goes by. We are informed about the dangers of social media, but will those dangers increase or decrease throughout the year? We need to stay informed on what these companies do with our data because I doubt social media companies will stop selling us as a product.

Location and Social Media: Good or Bad?

Photo by Taylor Long

By Taylor Long

  When posting a picture to social media, I almost always tag my location. I don’t necessarily do it so people can see where I am, but more so that I can look back on that memory and know exactly where I was. I especially like to add my location on Instagram if I am at a big event or concert so I’ll never forget how fun something was just from a single picture. When I tag my location on Facebook, it’s so my family can see what fun things I’m doing. Most of my family like my mom, dad, and grandparents only have Facebook so it’s a good way to show them what I’ve been up to.

There is also a downside of tagging your location… Everyone who sees your post will be able to tell where you spend the majority or your time. Instagram does have a feature, like most social media, to make your account private. This would ensure that only people you allow to follow you will be able to see your posts and therefore, your location that you have tagged.

Learn about some pros and cons when tagging your location by clicking on this link.

What are we agreeing to? We take a look at Facebook’s Terms and Conditions.

Photo created by Christian Clark

In 2016, Facebook was accused of giving Cambridge Analytica, a political date firm access to over 50 million Facebook users in which they used for targeting advertisements for the 2016 presidential election. Following this scandal, Facebook made some changes to its terms and conditions of service, here are some basic things you need to know. Facebook has the ability to use any photo you post royalty free, they can even sell your photos to other companies making revenue off your data. If liked by another active user, your photos will remain visible even if you delete your account. Facebook also has the power to change the terms and conditions of service whenever they please. These are a few things to keep in mind next time you go to share something on Facebook or through one of its partner companies.

Facial Recognition is Taking Away Privacy

By Dawson Pankratz

There is no denying that facial recognition is surrounding us in the world today. From simply unlocking our phones, to helping law enforcement track a criminal, facial recognition is used to make life easier and safer for us. It is being used in schools to determine if an expelled student or unsafe parent is on the premise. This can alert the schools of a major threat to the safety of students. There are many other ways facial recognition is helping increase the security of the public. 

While aspects of facial recognition can be helpful, many worry about what the advancement of facial recognition will do in our society. For example, many people believe the government will use facial recognition to track citizens and take away basic privacy rights. Companies are able to use facial recognition in marketing and advertising. Facial recognition can be used to determine things like age, race, and gender. With this information, companies are able to target ads specifically for you. 

There is currently no federal regulation surrounding facial recognition. People expect that with no regulation, it can easily be used against people. We can see this currently happening in China. The country is using facial recognition to arrest citizens for petty crimes like jaywalking. With a lack of regulation, not only our country, but also companies, can have citizens under constant surveillance. Companies can gather information about you and sell it to marketing firms for profit. The facial recognition industry was $3.2 billion in 2019 and is expected to be at $7 billion by 2024.  

Privacy and Presidential Alerts

By Bre Poynter

Privacy in today’s age is practically unheard of. Consumers save their passwords to autofill for different sites, so everyone’s information is monitored by corporations and the government. The United States actually has fewer privacy protections than most other countries, according to Harvard University.

Recently, President Trump sent out a presidential alert test earlier this month. In coordination with FEMA and the FCC, the alert was sent out to everyone without the consent of phone users.

The utter control that the government has of everyone’s privacy and access should be concerning. While an individual may not have anything to hide, it is still a violation of constitutional rights and privacy laws.

Personal technology devices and the American government are two separate entities that should remain separate; however, with the implementation of presidential alerts and access to every cellular device, there is a complete lack of privacy amongst Americans.

Lack of privacy exists in aspects from social media algorithms tracking one’s every move in order to advertise to the tracking by the government in order to track its citizens.

With the development of technology comes the control of the government. Most of the time the spying or tracking is subtle; however, I believe it is becoming more clear with things like the presidential alerts.

President Trump and other government officials have much more control over citizens than many would assume. It is important to be aware of the rise of technology and the fall of privacy.

First Presidential Alert test was sent out on October 3, 2018. Image Courtesy of The Hill

 

Privacy Isn’t Always Private

By Brandon Brownlee

Recently in my WU 101 class we talked about knowing how to use your privacy settings on your social media accounts. This got me thinking about how private our accounts are. From the outside it would appear that your accounts can be as private as you want to make them. For example, there are many privacy settings on your Instagram account, with the most obvious being that only your friends can see your posts. The reality is that once you post something, whether you directly delete it or not, that post is there forever.

This summer three major league baseball players had their Twitter

Privacy settings are available for every type of account like the above PS4 online account. Photo by Brandon Brownlee

accounts hacked and had old offensive Tweets, that had been previously deleted, from their teen years exposed and it caused some controversy on what their punishment should be or if they should be punished in the first place. Trea Turner, Josh Hader, and Sean Newcomb all were forced to take sensitivity classes and participate in the MLB’s diversity and inclusion initiatives. It can be speculated whether these classes were necessary or not because all three players are most likely nowhere near the people they were in high school.

The media speculated the decision with some people’s opinion being that the players should be kicked out of the league. The moral of the story is that you must think about what you are tweeting or posting because all those posts last forever and can be found anytime with a certain amount of digging. You don’t ever want to be fired or denied a job because of a senseless social media post.