Should government organizations and private companies be allowed to track our online behaviors and use the data they collect about use? What are the implications of the collection and use of personal data when it comes to particular groups in society?
DIRECTIONS:
Pick one particular group to be your imagined audience. Think about why that particular group should care about the issue of online privacy--what do they have at stake? In a blog post of approximately 350-400 words, you will construct an argument based on the specific rhetorical situation you have constructed (see handout). In your argument you must use evidence from at least 3 sources (two may come from the articles we've read together, but one must come from your own research). Remember to use parenthetical citations.
Based on the rhetorical situation, make careful decisions
about the following as you craft your argument:
* Point of view: Why would your audience need to care about an issue related to online privacy? What, according to your opinion, do they have at stake? What do you want this audience to think/understand/believe/do? Make sure your claim on the issue fits the perspective of the audience.
* Structure: How will you begin? How will you organize main points? How will you end? Use the structures on the last page of your toolbox for ideas, or use some of the editorials we read for ideas.
* Examples & evidence: What kind of evidence and examples would your particular audience find convincing and compelling?
* Tone & language use: Craft your words, your metaphors, your tone for the particular audience. Again think about what they would respond to.
* Appeals: As you present your main points, examples, and evidence, what appeals would work? What kind of logical reasons and examples would resonate with this audience? As you craft your language or use imagery or anecdotes, what emotion would you go for? How would you establish a sense of trust or credibility?
* Strategies: Look back at the toolbox and remind yourself of the strategies that are at your disposal: rhetorical questions, anecdotes, allusions, imagery, figurative language, irony, etc. Use what will work with your audience.
REMEMBER TO SAVE YOUR WORK TO A GOOGLE DOC BEFORE YOU POST IT--JUST TO BE SAFE!!!
If you are looking for sources besides articles, here is an interesting podcast and TED Talk:
Podcast:
http://www.wnyc.org/story/propublica-facebook-algorithms-bias-privacy/
TED Talk:
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ReplyDeleteIn just about every site your children visit, different companies collect information about them. They can obtain all sorts of creepy information about you and your children. This information is compiled into profiles that are being sold to other companies so they can target advertisements towards users(Weisbaum, 1). The fact that your privacy is compromised when you go online is alarming. The big question of our time is, is online tracking of kids okay?
ReplyDeleteIt is disturbing that people have access to our data and even our kids’. Whenever your kid goes on a site to play a game or watch a video, they are being tracked. Sometimes they might even enter private information like their name and birthday without knowledge of the dangers. These situations pose the threat of identify theft where people can open credit cards in your kids names and you might not even know. While the sites and companies that they might visit are trustworthy, doesn’t mean hackers are. In 2009, VTech, a toy company was hacked. Their toys tracked information about the kids that play with them. (Franceschi-Bicchierai,2). This hacker then had access to parents' and children's names as well as addresses and the scariest part is it wasn't too hard to get. Is it okay that hackers can access kids personal information just because the companies containing them are incapable of keeping them private? Children should have the luxury of being safe when going online.
There are laws attempting to protect our children online. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act created by the Federal Trade Commision requires parental authorization for children under the age of 13 when collecting information online(Moran, 1). Recently an investigation discovered that some big companies were collecting information without parental consent. These companies include Viacom:(Nickelodeon, Nick Jr.), Mattel:(Barbie, Hot Wheels, American Girl), JumpStart:(NeoPets) and Hasbro:(My little Pony, Littlest Pony Shop, Nerf).(Moran 2). These are sites that parents put their trust in and many kids use them. Even when kids are online, researching information for school, they are still being tracked (Kamenetz, 2). These are tools designed to help students learn better, but at what cost? Do children need to risk their privacy and safety just to learn better and go online?
The internet should be a safe place for children. Parents shouldn’t have to be constantly lecturing their children on online safety. Websites are meant to be a tool for learning and entertainment, not a place to worry about whether or not someone is tracking your children. New laws need to be created to protect children online. Companies should not have the ability to find a loophole and continue them. People need to feel safe online and stopping the tracking of children is the place to start.
Internet Safety and Kids -- Not Child’s Play
ReplyDeleteWhether you like it or not, your child’s activity online is never completely private. Some toys and websites designed for younger audiences obtain personal data on the user, with and without consent. Sometimes, there isn’t even enough security to keep this informat Although laws are in place that help protect your children from the direct collection of information by tracking companies and advertisers, it’s still very much a reality and your kid could be at risk.
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) prohibits the tracking industry from following kids online who are less than 13 years of age. Unfortunately, this doesn’t keep incidences from happening occasionally. According to the article “NY Cracks Down On Mattel And Hasbro For Tracking Kids Online”, four companies (Viacom, Mattek, Jumpstart, And Hasbro) very recently have been fined $835,000 after prosecutors found tracking tools on their websites designed for kids under 13 years of age (Newman 1).
Online tracking poses a huge threat to your child. In this specific case, information collected from the toy and game websites could build a profile for visitors of all ages before they could be taught proper internet safety and without them being aware of it. As NY attorney general Eric Schneiderman says, “We can tell that the kids are being tracked, but we don’t know what these companies do with this information” (Newman 2). When questioned, even the companies themselves claimed that they had no idea that this illegal tracking was going on (Newman 1).
Information could also be stolen from the hands of the advertising companies and your children could be in danger from child predators. According to NPR staff in their article “At School And At Home, How Much Does The Internet Know About Kids?”, a hacker stole info and photographs from the company VTech, who, by November 2015, had more than six million individual files for children using their toys (NPR 1). The hacker was able to access an uncomfortable amount of personal data such as first names, addresses, and the names of the parents (NPR 2). What do companies even this information for? And, more importantly, why was the information well protected to keep things like this from happening?
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ReplyDeleteAre Our Children Having Their Identities Stolen Right Under Our Noses?
ReplyDeleteHow would you feel if your innocent child was stripped of their identity? Of course anyone would feel frightened and would try to do what they can, but it’s extremely difficult to reverse the effects. Identity theft can affect a child's life immensely, since it's possible that your young child owes a large sum of money in taxes for a house or job they’ve never had, but someone else under their identity did, and now will have to clean up someone else's mess.
Children are more targeted than adults in identity theft because their identities are unchecked, and their social security numbers are clean and easier to steal (Alterman 1). The internet has made stealing identities easier since online tracking can make obtaining your child’s social security number and personal information easier. In fact, the educational toy company, VTech, was hacked and more than six million kids had their personal information stolen (NPR 1). Clearly even large companies can’t protect your child's information and action must be taken.
Tracking children can also happen in real life, with microchips. Disney’s new ‘MyMagic’ wristbands contain microchips that can collect your and your child’s personal information to make your vacation more personalized (Garcia 3). While it's agreeable that this monitoring is to a lesser extent and can be omitted, it’s still an invasion of privacy, and its possible that they could take your child’s social security number. It may not be completely certain, but would you really risk the chance and have your child’s identity stolen?
There are many ways to stop personal information and social security numbers from being stolen, and most of them aren’t very difficult to do. Children should avoid talking to strangers, limit posting private information, turn on privacy settings, and use a strong password online (Alterman 4). Although these all do help, stronger ways to protect your children do exist. Third party monitoring systems, like Intersections Inc., allow parents to keep an eye on their child’s identities (Alterman 2). Laws, such as The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act law, state that companies like VTech can’t give a child’s personal information (NPR 1) and the Student Privacy Pledge took place to prevent online companies from collecting data from students without permission (NPR 2).
Children having their identities being stolen is a big deal, and all of the options above do help to prevent this, but the government should make tracking children online illegal. Some may think that everyone should be tracked by the government so we can find terrorists and criminals, but children should be omitted since they aren’t a threat; it's almost never necessary to track them. The third party monitoring systems are great but everyone should be able to protect their child’s identity by law, and not because they are customers. All kids should be able to go online as well as offline freely without being tracked and risk having their identities stolen.
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ReplyDeleteAre Companies Stealing Your Retirement Money Online?
ReplyDelete“We're still in the first minutes of the first day of the Internet revolution,” States Scott Cook, the director of eBay. This statement can be exciting to some and frightening to others. The internet has been a gateway to knowledge and learning, but has also made an entry for online scamming and fraud. The internet is a great and useful tool to connect with friends and family that are miles away from you. Yet did you know that you are being tracked and targeted by what you do online? Online trackers collect your personal information without your consent and continuously miss use your information by selling it for money. This often leads to scams and frauds which undesirably can happen to you.
Important tasks such as your money management are tracked by online companies and can change based on the information they find about you. Life insurance sites like AccuquoteLife.com have stated that people will receive a default insurance policy based off their tracked personal information (Angwin 6). This means that different people will receive different default policies even though it’s supposed to be the same for all. Along with that, 36.9% of individuals over the age of 55 have lost money to online scams (Thibeault 1). These scams are mainly used to earn money for the company, but could be used for many more unrealized events. Sharon Goott Nissim, a member of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, says, “Most people have no idea this is going on. Your online profile is being sold on the web. It’s kind of crazy and it’s not harmless” (Weisbaum 1). This new, shocking information scares many, but there is good reason.
Steps can be taken to hide your information from tracking companies online. The best thing to do is to not respond to or ignore any emails or messages that are asking for your personal information. Those messages are most likely scams to get your money.
With all the information we know about online tracking companies, there is still ambiguity. Who knows what else tracking companies are doing with our information? This greatly concerns me and I believe that companies and organizations should not be allowed to track what we do online. If tracking companies lost their privileges, we would then not have to worry about the threat of being scammed. There are still many alarming elements of the internet, but if there were no tracking companies the internet experience could be greatly improved.
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ReplyDeleteParents and Children;
ReplyDeleteOur nation relies on the internet. Everyday millions of us go online to search the web, play games, and communicate. From young children to adults we log on and put ourselves at risk of having our privacy invaded or our information being hacked by a complete stranger. So parents, that means your young child or teenager could be in danger just by playing a game on their favorite website. As a matter of fact, it isn’t just a possibility, it is a real, common occurrence that really should not happen or be allowed in any way.
Sadly it has come to a point in our technology, that we must take precautions when going online. Nowadays, almost anyone can see the information we release on the web even if you did not give them your approval. Companies, websites, and the government can practically see every detail about us if we release it in some fashion on the internet and it truly is not fair. How can it be that we give information specifically to one company or organization that we trust and all of a sudden, anyone can see it if they desire to. It is crazy but seems to be how it works now. As the people who are being affected, we begin to wonder if this should really be allowed. Especially when a lot of the time the information gathered is used in a way we do not like and not for a good reason. Instead for a person’s own benefit, most likely being a profit. For example, a few years ago a famous educational toy company, ValTech was hacked. During the event, the hacker not only invaded ValTech themselves but their consumers: children. This case is rather important because as parents and children yourselves, you must realize how close this issue is to you and your family. The criminal not only got the children’s first names but photos of them also, “Last month, a hacker stole personal information and photos of more than six million children” (NPR Staff, 1). As a parent, you should take this event into consideration, after all these are no longer rare. By realizing that this could possibly happen to your own child, you should start to really keep your children safe from online predators. However, a parent should not only focus on their children, but themselves as well. Recently, there was a cyber attack against a major tech company called Dyn. This company is in charge of multiple major media sites including Twitter and Spotify, each of which hold a good handful of a user’s information. Both Twitter and Spotify are visited by millions of people everyday, this meant that during the attack, many people were put at risk of having this privacy totally taken advantage of. This attack also targeted home devices like baby monitors and cameras, meaning it had the chance to affect multiple people within just one family. These attacks will most likely never stop happening if we do not try to limit the collection of data through the internet, instead they are “expected to grow exponentially in the coming years… an estimated 6.4 billion connected devices were in use last year. By 2020, that number is expected to more than triple to 20.8 billion devices” (Kent 2).
Everyday, someone in our nation is attacked and it could be you or someone in your family. So, you need to decide whether organizations and companies should be allowed to track us anyway. Really at the end of the day they should not be able to because it is not worth losing our privacy and safety just so they can make a profit while tricking us into thinking we are being benefitted. Like getting an advertisement for a pair of shoes you were looking at earlier in the day. Though companies and organizations collect meaning no harm, they know that overall it potentially can cause a cyber attack that would end up hurting their consumers more than themselves. So, parents and children of all ages, pay attention whenever you go online because the information that you innocently give out could come back and hurt you without your consent.
Hello, as many of you know I am Jack Trombley. I am writing to you now to give you my perspective on internet tracking. I’m speaking to you users of the internet on behalf of advertising agencies.
ReplyDeleteFirst let me tell you a little bit about internet tracking. A beacon is software downloaded onto someone's computer that tracks what they're typing on a website, this allows a company to see what that person is looking at so they can make things that would interest them easier to access (Angwin 1). “It knows when you come back, and it knows to look you up, and based on what it has profiled about you in the past, it will treat you accordingly and decide which advertisements to give you, sometimes how to personalize content to you” (Hill 1), this is an example of tracking making your life easier because it can make it easier to find a product that you're looking for or it could give you a good idea of what you should buy. With disney's new magic band tracking devices they will be able to tell what someone did and didn't do (Clampet 3), this will allow disney to tell a person what they should do the next time they are at disney based on what they didn't do when they were there last.
As you may be able to tell by now I am pro internet tracking. By allowing advertising companies to track our information our lives are affected for the better. It makes using the internet and things such as vacations easier. I don't think that advertising companies are going to use our information to harm us in any way because if we aren't there to spend money then they won't make any money.
Why should celebrities care about online privacy?
ReplyDeleteWatch out celebrities, a new form of stalking exists based primarily on your social media platforms. Your instagram alone holds enough information for anyone to successfully track your current location. If you post your location and where-a-bouts on a regular basis, any stalker or hacker could very easily gain personal information, such as your address or even your favorite restaurants to visit. Shawn Tuma, a cyber-security attorney with Scheef & Stone in Frisco, Texas has suggested that each time a celeb is about to post something on any social media, that they should ask themselves “What level of security do I need to implement to match the risk that I’m exposing myself to?” (Weaver 2).
Most celebrities rely on their public presence and social media as part of their business model, so without their social media, they will seem less accessible to their fans. During her trip to Paris for Fashion Week, Kim Kardashian documented her experience across her multiple social-media channels. This resulted in an attack where she was held at gunpoint and robbed of $10 million worth of merchandise (Weaver 3). Although her social media posts seemed harmless, dangerous people saw her snapchat story photo of her flaunting a diamond ring and had the information needed to track her down and steal it. In our current world, it’s almost impossible to live a day without the internet or social media. Kevin Roose, a writer from New York magazine, decided to test this theory out, and try to go an entire day surveillance-free, including to texting, social media or even google. In the article, Kevin explains how many daily routines he needs to change in order to be surveillance-free by saying “I begin shutting off all technology in my house that automatically collects or sends out data about me. It’s a horrifyingly long list.” (Roose 2). Celebrities use technology every minute of the day, and this automatically makes it easy for someone to see where they are in a picture at that exact second, or hear what they are thinking at that moment. It’s very dangerous for celebrities to use social media as often as they do. In the Pew Research Center article: “The State Of Privacy in America: What we learned”, the author of the article, Lee Rainie, explains that the study states “Many Americans struggle to understand the nature and scope of data collected about them” (Rainie 6). If celebrities can understand the amount of personal data collected about themselves, they will be more cautious of what they post online.
I think that celebrities should care about the issue of online privacy, because their fame could draw dangerous people to them. Celebrities should reduce their amount of time spent on social media to lower the risks of their locations and personal info being spread around. Although, if they do however lower their use of social media, fans may be upset that they aren’t posting as much as they used to. Celebrities, as well as everyone else, should have control of who can and can not have access to their personal information.
Guess Who’s Tracking Your Children
ReplyDeleteMany people probably don’t know or care that every time they visit a website, search through a browser, or post a photo with a location, cookies(a small text file that is created by a website designed for the website to keep track of your personal preferences) are creating a profile of information about you. But did you know your children’s information is being collected and stored? The information that is being collected is often times done without you knowing it. So how do you know what information is being collected? Most often times, you don’t. This is why online tracking can be so dangerous, and according to Herb Weisbaum “companies can learn about your personal preferences, religious beliefs, political affiliation, race, ethnic background, even health problems, or sexual preferences” (Weisbaum 1).This is a lot of very specific personal information that is being collected that most people would not want others to see. Another major concern is that if someone gains access to a child's social security number, they would be able to destroy that child's credit and put them into so much debt before they even turned 18 and at this point the amount of debt can probably not be fixed. So what are we doing to protect this kind of information?
Does your child own a VTech toy? Recently, the toy company VTech was hacked the
hacker was able to steal photos and information of about 6 million children VTech has two different databases, one with just first names and another that includes information about parents, where they live etc. The hacker then had to only connect the two data bases to figure out who the children were. According to Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai a simple solution to protect kids information would be to enter false information such as a fake address (Franceschi-Bicchierai 1). This solution, protects information that could be used in the future to protect against further information being stolen but it does not help with the fact that the information provided to Vtech has already been stolen.
Although not directly correlated to protecting childrens information specifically, there is work being done on the Do Not Track program. This plan is designed to protect consumers information by providing an option icon on ads presented on a website that allows the consumer to choose an option that allows the consumer to opt out of being tracked and this then ensure the safety of the consumers information (Weisbaum 2). The COPPA protects children 13 and under, but this can be a helpful tool to protect information of teens that are over 13. The Do Not Track plan emphasizes that if a consumer opts out, all of the tracking must stop (Weisbaum 3) This is a good way to protect information because when all tracking is stopped, you know that no information is being collected and you don't have to guess what is being kept private and what is not. Of course not all teens or consumers for example need to opt out of this plan, but at least the option is there. However I do think that the COPPA should cover more than 13 and under because teens over that age are still vulnerable to tracking.
DeleteI think that there are a few good ways to protect the information of children from potential predators. Tracking definitely goes on, but the problem is that companies are collecting this information illegally. I don't know what is so important about kids information in the first place, or why companies would want to market to them. It is likely that children will be tempted to click on ads because they look cool. This is an example of where information can be collected. I acknowledge that the information that is being collected online about children may scare some parents more than others which is why companies need parents permission before collecting information. By all means if a parent does not think that tracking children is dangerous than they have the option to allow their child to be tracked. But I think that tracking children is becoming more of a problem because tracking techniques are becoming more intrusive and information is being collected without parents knowing it. How can parents then protect their children? Thats where I feel that the COPPA and other organizations come into play. They work to protect the personal information of children and I think that these types of laws and plans are steps toward complete protection of children's information, which should not be collected because as I stated before, tracking is becoming more intrusive and dangerous with the possibilities of hackers, websites, and companies being able to access very personal information such as address, social security number, habits on the web and browser history.
Would you give up your way of life for your privacy?
ReplyDeleteIf you are a person with any type of internet access chances are you are worried about being tracked by either government agencies or by companies on the internet. This fear can be for a number of reasons, not knowing what is being done with your information that is being gathered and who is able to see it. The good thing is that there is not to much that you actually have to worry about.
You may be worried that the government is able to, with a click of a button, go into your search history see every website and everything you’ve ever done on the internet. Luckily for you this mainly applies to terrorists and spies. The FBI has planned on getting legislation passed that in cases of terrorism and espionage a warrant will not be necessary to search browser history. An important detail to remember is that the FBI would have no access to content viewed, only to the websites visited. It is also very important to remember that this would be entirely for our safety, only used when the country is at risk and information is necessary for safety. (Nakashima 1)
Just like anybody else, you’re probably uncomfortable about the idea that companies can determine many things about you just from what you look at on your computer or even worse, those same companies can sell information about you (Angwin 1). The problem is that you may not like people knowing things about you that are very personal (like health). Without companies doing any sort of data sales they could not run their sites.(Angwin 8) Without any of these sites the internet would be useless for the normal person.
What is a very important thing to know is that the government is also trying to protect the rights of the people by passing a “privacy bill of rights”. This lets people to stop their privacy from being violated by companies. This “privacy bill of rights’’ would require online companies to tell you what information they have collected about you and what will happen with any information (Weisbaum 2)
Many will say that the government or corporations shouldn’t have any rights to our personal information whether it is to sell or to learn who we are. This is because people are scared of what these companies and the government will do with their information. What they don’t understand is that even though we don’t want anybody knowing our personal information it is important for our way of life, whether it's the websites that we like to go to being kept up and accessible to us or being kept safe from people that want to cause hurt us. It is your decision though, is your privacy really worth your way of life.
Keeping your reputation clean is vital for getting into college and finding a job- but how you use the Internet may make such a task very difficult. Consider the countless situations in which the Internet is used, especially by young adults building the foundations of their lives; updating Facebook statuses, online shopping, signing up for insurance. There is a good chance all the information you are releasing– what you’ve been buying, your interests, your private discussions in chat rooms–is being collected and stored somewhere. According to director of consumer protection, Susan Grant, at Consumer Federation of America “There are no limits to what type of information can be collected, how long it can be retained, with whom it can be shared or how it can be used.” By simply spending a couple minutes researching, a lot of information about you can be found. Young adults, those looking to move forward with their lives in college and a career, are restrained by the actions of their teenage years. Although it’s true that these young adults are more aware of ways to private themselves than the older generations, teens are shown to be more likely to get into trouble and go online to share publicly about those instances as well as share other personal data (Rainee 7). This data can be found by employers and college admissions officers with not too much effort.
ReplyDeleteIn the digital world we live in today, not only does tracking keep us safe by stopping cyber criminals and terrorists, but it keeps people in line. The availability of personal information online is inevitable. Despite the formation of multiple Do Not Track programs and policies trying to help web users private their information, there is no way to do so completely. In an experiment held by Kevin Roose where he tried to go completely surveillance free for an entire day, Gary Miliefsky, the executive producer of Cyber Defense Magazine and the founder of Snoopwall (which prevents cyber-spying), told Kevin that he would “never be completely invisible from the tracking of the U.S government.” (Roose 2) Information being collected just is not preventable, and those trying to keep their reputation looking good for interviews and such must be wary that all they do is being watched. Rick Jackson argues that it is not fair for something from teenaged years to be the deciding factor of whether or not someone gets a job (Sullivan 3); however, with today’s norm of people posting their daily activities and thoughts to the internet, there is not much that can be done to keep corporations from accessing information. The solution to keep online tracking from ruining your life is not to attempt to banish it but to behave yourself and know the consequences of your actions.
Whenever you log on to a Google Account to work on a school assignment or project, know that your online activity is being analyzed by the company. In the United States, over 50 million students use Google Apps for their schoolwork. Most schools around the country prefer to use Chromebooks because they are much cheaper than other laptop alternatives, and they use free software tools. Teachers and students also love to use Google Docs because school assignments can be easily be shared between teacher and student, and students can work on group documents and presentations. Although using Google Apps for school may seem private, the company is actually collecting information about your actions taken on these apps and on the Internet (NPR 1).
ReplyDeleteThe Google company has come under fire in the past for collecting students’ information on their activity. An advocacy group has claimed that the information that Google collects from students gives the company knowledge on how to sell targeted ads to students in order to increase their sales (Ashok 2). Even though Google has stated that they do collect information in order to do this, their parent company, Alphabet, stated that Google Apps for Education comply with the current laws (Ashok 2).
Although the collection of student’s data and activity may be legal, laws that concern students’ data privacy are not very strict. The law states that schools do not have to have written consent from parents before giving information about the online activity of their students to companies (Ashok 2). This should be worrisome for many students and parents, because it means that students do not know what kinds of information is being used by companies. Students also don’t know how the information is being used by the companies once it is received by the schools. Also, it isn’t really possible to escape from being tracked by companies while on a school account. According to Nate Cardozo of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), there is also “literally no way to say ‘no’” to school apps for mining students’ data (Ashok 2).
A possible solution to too much data being collected by companies would be the creation of a program that would allow people to choose whether or not companies can collect their personal information and information about their online activity. This “Do Not Track” program could really help people that are worried about their data being gathered because they can be able to universally opt out of data collection (Weisbaum 3). People can also learn what kind of information is being used by other companies.
When students use the Internet for school, whether they are at home or school, they should not have to worry about their activities online. However, with the frequent gathering of data from companies such as Google, it is hard for them not to, because they think about what specific information is being used, and how it is being used. In my opinion, I think that students using a school account should watch what they are doing on school accounts, because they don’t know what could possibly be done with their activity.
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ReplyDeleteAs online privacy becomes a reoccurring topic in the news, people need to be extra careful with the information they put online. Everything you put on social media could potentially harm you. For instance, who would have thought someone like Kim Kardashian would be held at gunpoint for simply using an app many people use today. This life threatening act was primarily from using Snapchat which in February, a total of 100 million people were recorded using in one month. Since many people use this app amongst others in their everyday lives, it is not expected for people to stop using it all together. This means in order to be safer and more private, people need to be more cautious and aware of what they are posting. Numerous companies and hackers will track and collect information about people, and many times they target celebrities. For example, Jennifer Lawrence was recently a victim of these hackers (Maresca 2). Although I understand why famous people would be more targeted, I do not think less privacy is a fair trade off (Meresca 2). This is one reason why there should be some limits to the data collected by trackers. In the article, “The Surveillance Free Day”, it is nearly impossible to continue living a normal day without being under surveillance (Roose 2). For this reason, if we are going to be watched all the time, we should limit what information is allowed to be used. Such as Jennifer Lawrence’s privacy breach (Maresca 1). When the data collected exposes a very personal piece of information, there needs to be a law against it! Jennifer felt exploited and violated, but that she had nothing to apologize for since it was not intended for anyone to see (Maresca 2). At the Pew Research Center, it became aware that modern life will never allow people to be left alone (Rainie 2). Therefore if regular citizens have major problems with the amount of control they have over their own privacy, the issues for celebrities is that plus so much more. In conclusion, the best and most realistic protection for yourself, is to monitor what you are putting online. Surveillance is inescapable and some believe it should be totally limited. However the limits should be focused on the information collected rather than getting rid of all surveillance, since it is a main part of our security system as well.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to the Internet, people of all walks of life should be concerned about the state of their privacy. However, when it comes to children, the adults in their lives should be raising more questions about both the immediate repercussions and the long-term impacts of the violation of their children’s online privacy. In a modern world where children have around the clock access to technology, the chance of fraud, exploitation, and tracking have greatly increased, as demonstrated on numerous occasions. One event that raised concerns amongst many parents was the VTech hack that revealed the information of over 6 million children and the 4.9 million parental accounts linked to the children(NPR Staff 1). This was significant because it showed just how volatile the security of personal information is and the immensity of the volume of information that is kept on people. It also demonstrated how easy accessing this type of information is, which is prevalent in the identity theft and fraud of children. It has been shown by experts that the risk of long-term fraud is much high for children. Experts say this is because it could go undetected until the need for a child’s Social Security number, which often isn’t necessary until they near adulthood(AP 2). Besides fraud, children are also at a higher risk of exploitation by companies because they are so unsuspecting of the dangers behind marketing. For example, the relatively recent introduction of “MagicBands” at DisneyWorld are easy ways for Disney to earn money through children who may not realize that every time they purchase something with the bands, they are using their parents’ linked credit cards(Garcia, Sentinel 2).
ReplyDeleteIn considerations of both the online and physical safety of children, parents need to ask themselves, how much access to technology and the Internet should I give to my kids? Anytime fraud, exploitation, or tracking is done on a child, it directly affects their parents, who have to deal with the consequences of what happens to their kids. In today’s world, parents can’t take too many precautions in regards to the safety of their children because they are such easy targets and have so much at stake.
Online tracking of children has many negative implications for parents as well. Due to children being subjected to advertisements that appeal to them, children are more prone to pestering their parents for the products they are shown. One study found that when parents denied children’s requests for products, children who had repeatedly seen the advertisement argued about the purchase 21 percent of the time (Calvert 218). Children who had seen the advertisement less argued with their parents only 9 percent of the time (Calvert 218). This results in parent-child conflict and can take a toll on parents financially if they concede to their child’s desires (Calvert 218). Online tracking of children gives many parents concerns. Because of these concerns, parents may limit the activities of their children online. This inadvertently results in their children’s school work being made more difficult, because browsers, including google services, track their users (NPR 2). Parents therefore may not let their children use such services.
ReplyDeleteDespite the widespread use of online tracking of children, there are solutions and regulations to protect your child’s privacy. These solutions could include a “Do Not Track” program, which would make it easy to tell companies you do not want them to collect you or your child’s personal information or browsing history (Weisbaum 2). Although the industry’s solution of providing an advertising option icon exists, this would not be sufficient, according to Jeff Chester at the Center for Digital Democracy, who believes, “It’s ludicrous to allow companies that make money by collecting your personal information to be the ones who protect your privacy” (Weisbaum 2). One current regulation includes the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which placed rules on online marketing techniques to protect the privacy of children under the age of thirteen (Calvert 223). This act allows the Federal Trade Commission to enforce rules for data collection practices on children’s websites.
Tracking of children online should be regulated and ended completely. Tracking puts children’s safety at risk and largely influences their behaviors negatively. Tracking also causes their parents unneeded stress by raising concerns over their children’s safety. Tracking only negatively impacts children and parents. Because of this, there should be regulations such as a “Do Not Track” program, to protect both parents and their children.
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ReplyDeleteMany people shop online, but is it really less of a hassle than shopping in stores? Online shopping has become more popular due to the fact that you can do it in your own home. But some of the main problems related to online shopping are the chance of credit card fraud, data collection and tracking by online companies, loss of control over personal data, and the unreliable collection and tracking by the government (Goldberg 2). Most adults don’t even realize the amount of information being collected about them (Rainie 6). Even most people working in this industry don’t realize how intrusive their companies are being (Angwin 2). This has become the main issue of online shopping because most people aren’t aware that their information is being collected and saved. This could be dangerous because someone could hack into this information and gain access to credit card, address, and other personal info. Although this has been a common problem recently, many people aren’t taking the necessary actions to try and prevent this from happening.
ReplyDeleteEven though ordering things from your phone can seem a lot easier than driving to the store and trying to find what you want, it could result in many more problems than you think. By shopping online, you are allowing tracking companies to record what you are buying and where you are clicking on the page. They can also access your personal information that you provide to the online store. Your information can then be sold and can even be hacked from these companies (Angwin 1). This is really dangerous and can result in credit card fraud, loss of control over personal data, and bank fraud. The simple solution to this is actually going to the store and buying what you want instead of ordering online. I think it’s much safer and a much better idea than risking someone getting ahold of all of your information. Even though going to the store is much safer, it is really up to you on how much you want those new shoes or a bag to match your outfit.