A Loss of Privacy: User Beware

Have you ever heard of the phrase “if it's on the Internet, it isn't private?” Thanks to the Internet and its offspring social media, one can find out anything about anybody. Cairncross believed that privacy would become lost with the arising ‘electronic village.’ To no surprise, she was right. If we put our social networking sites as private, is our information really secure? Unfortunately, whether its private or public, none of our information is safe if we post it online. Some actions can ruin your reputation or put your safety and privacy at risk.

            Social media has transformed and remodeled every aspect of our lives, including our personal and professional identities. What you post online today can influence your career tomorrow. When one is applying for a job, companies will search you on Google and through social media. They will primarily check you on Facebook and if you don’t have it, they wonder why. Companies do not expect you to be buttoned up twenty four seven, but they expect a good image and a presentable individual representing their company. Twitter is now even being looked at. Employers look at the way you talk, what you share and your photos. Anything can make them not want to consider you as a potential employee. Tracking companies and Homeland Security are able to follow everything we do online. Our phone conversations are being tapped into for key words and even video games like World or Warcraft and Second Life have the government in search for suspicious activity and potential criminals.

New technologies can bring a new flow and present us with different problems. Take for instance, one of the latest innovations, the iPhone by apple. IPhone’s now have a feature where you can unlock your device by reading your fingerprint. Our fingerprints are now accessible by hackers, something that was extremely difficult to retrieve before. Also, there is a feature on our iPhone’s where we can be located at any time. One can upload a photo and without that person knowing, our location goes along with it. Facebook can also sync a persons personal information to your phone like their address, what school they go to, their phone number, interests, birth date, etc. Applications also take the publics privacy away. Just because an application is free, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look at the security settings.

Just recently, Florida State sent out an email about the ‘Heartbleed,’ a bug that has made major websites vulnerable to theft by hackers. The public is not able to tell if their data has been accessed, but what we do know is that this bug has been in existence for about two years. Anything from banking information, healthcare data, social security information, and so on can be identified through this bug. In other words, anything online isn’t safe. Although it may be annoying to develop a significant online presence and always be aware of what your posting, it can pay off in the end. We live in a world where we are all connected and once our information is put out there, you cannot get it back. The loss of privacy is no longer a paranoid fear; it is a realistic fear.

Below I have attached, a short video featuring Jonathan Stickland where he investigates the future of online privacy. 

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