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Privacy

Jennifer Gehrmann
Feb 18, 2016
3 min read

A Worthy Illusion?

Because technologies have advanced so much, legitimate privacy has become scarce. Nowadays, it is effortless for us to be detected or tracked by some sort of organization, such as the government, banks, or insurance companies (for security or business purposes). Basically, our privacy is constantly being invaded—with or without our consent—on a daily basis. The following description of what I do in a day will give you a better picture of how privacy is violated.

8:00 a.m. - 15:00 p.m.

I’m at school and am constantly accessing the school’s WiFi on my laptop in almost all of my classes throughout the day. My school mainly supports the use of Google applications and programs, therefore, I always write my notes on Google Docs, create presentations in Google Slides, and receive my assignments via Gmail or Google Classroom. I’m also always conducting online researches for my projects, such as a communism timeline or scientific experiments for the Science Fair. This means I’m visiting countless websites, which often contain cookies that identify and track users. Not only that, my school also monitors my online activities whenever I’m using the school’s WiFi because they have access to my laptop’s IP address. However, it’s not just the school that is tracking my online activities, but also the government (Rosen 2012). Nice!

16:00 p.m.

While I’m wandering in Mega Bangna (shopping center), I’m aware of the countless surveillance cameras in every corner, capturing all of my actions whether I’m buying a movie ticket, picking out a book at a bookstore, or dragging my friend—who’s sitting on his wakeboard—by the rope. It’s not only the place where I’m being captured by surveillance cameras. For example, every time I’m on the road, in a car, the surveillance cameras on the roadsides or tollways are recording my car’s license plate, anyone in the car, and the driving speed. All of these records are held by the police and can/are accessed by the government.

Not many people of my generation—or younger—are bothered by the lack of privacy because we are used to and have a better knowledge of technology than the past generations, so we’ve learned to be more wary of all kinds of danger that could come with the use of technology (Collier 2012). We know better than to post all of our personal information onto Facebook or Twitter, or forget to double-check a website’s legitimacy before entering our payment information. However, there’s a considerable number of people who are disturbed by a constant violation of their privacy and rights and think that it should not continue. Frankly, we all know that it is impossible to avoid privacy invasion—especially when it’s done by the government depends on it to secure the country. However, if the type of privacy invasion that those people are concerned about is in regards to social media, there’s only one solution. Like I’ve said, you must be cautious of every single one of your online activities and thoroughly filter what you’re going to post on social media. You never know when, how, or by who the stuff you’ve posted will be exploited. And if the things you’ve posted do backfire, point your finger to yourself because it’s your fault for sharing private information carelessly. It may be an uncomfortable reality for some, but for me, it is inevitable and doesn’t bother me at all because I have nothing to hide and be ashamed of. So stalk me through social media or other means all you want. I dare you.