Privacy, Online, Off

The Ted Talk videos highlight the importance of how technology and social media has become advanced and provides information about possibly anything. It gives information about celebrities, political figures, loved ones, friends and even yourself. Social media brings people together through its fun and addictive content, but many users do not know that social media can act as a location tracker for people.

For example, If I posted a Tik Tok every day and the username is my real name and I wear a specific color in every video, someone can build a profile of me in public. Also, your cell phone collects that data so if I wear pink dresses, I will then get ads for pink dresses. Social Media acts as a mask but it can tell anything about all types of information about an individual.

Inside the videos, many of the speakers used terms discussing many issues about how technology can track consumers and share very personal information about them and some organizations keep the information just in case they need to keep it for later. One speaker used the term electronic tattoos. I loved his comparison of using social media as a tattoo. He said tattoos can be very personal, they tell someone’s story about their feelings, history, family name. Similarly, social media does that to expect that it is not on your body, it is stored inside cell phones. 

Social Media apps such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are notorious for selling their users data for extra money, which is very harmful to the consumers who are unaware about who is buying their data. According to Forbes, “Among them was a chain featuring none other than Mark Zuckerberg himself proposing the idea of actually charging a monetary fee for developers to access user data, which they could repay either by purchasing advertising, selling items or simply writing Facebook a check”. The article also clarifies that in the report that this plan proposed by Mark Zuckerberg would only cost developers who want to buy users data a fee of $0.10 per year.  It is shocking to her that a user is only worth 10 cents when a user is a real person in day-to-day life who does not know who knows sensitive information about them.

This is very dangerous to users, especially elderly people, who did not grow up with technology, this plan exposes people to scams which commonly target the elderly age group. Even young kids are at risk because they now have access to cellphone and social media.

Hacker setting up fake accounts

I remember when I was got a new phone, and I began to download apps and when I login into them a notification kept popping up on each app asking to track my location or track my data so the phone can get me ads that I am interested in. I kept pressing no on all of them, when I used these apps, I notice that the ads kept showing me thing that I liked such as shopping on an app that I previously was on or vacations spots that I was going to in aa couple months. I was freaked out, so I looked at my setting and all of my notification for tracking through ads were on when I did not want them on. throughout that whole year, I was getting scam calls, text about tolls, or false payment on certain apps like amazon or banks.

Consumer about to share personal information to scammer

I know friends and family who have been impacted by their data being sold but it was more extreme than my experience. Previously I mentioned the friend from high school, well he got his Instagram account hacked by someone else impersonating as another one of his friends then blackmailing him into paying for money for it back. Then the hacker would follow people who he follows and try the same thing on other people. I felt heartbroken for my friend because he had that account for a long time and used it to promote his love for streaming and learning computer science.

I think the Government should have policies in place for that can help inform users about what happens to their information through the technology they use. I think that should ban apps containing sensitive information like location, health, education and more. Also making people who purchase this information show a license to keep record of who is holding this information to find out their motive to protect citizens.

This would have protected more children and elderly who are not very education on matter like these leading to identity thief. Another solution can be limiting companies' ability to collect, use, or sell data. Users should be informed about new policy agreement and users should be able to not agree to share data even through ads, social media. If a user says no then it means no, they are the consumers and they deserve privacy.

Theory: This connects into the 14th Amendment including citizens' right to privacy of their bodily autonomy but if a bill is proposed and using the argument of Substantive due process.  The 14th Amendment in section 1 specifically states, "nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law". Cases such as Whalen v. Roe can help support the claim that data privacy is a fundamental right because it protects a citizen's liberty from corporations. However, it might be a bit difficult because of corporate parenthood, so I think citizen who have been impacted propose this bill instead of the government just involving themselves. For a better chance at winning this bill if someone proposed this.

Dad teaching Son internet safety

I think people should read the terms and conditions carefully to know what they are signing up for when they sign up for these apps can be a good start to know who is invading your privacy. Parents should monitor their children and grandparent phones to make sure that they do not fall victim to a scam. Searching up your name on search engines to see if people are making fake accounts, if your information is on platform, you did not sign up for is another great way to protect your privacy.

Practice not putting location, personal information such as last name, updates about health, job place because from profiles, videos, and photos. Strangers can build profiles of you using your actual information or when companies sell or leak data, someone you do not know has your information. Social media and technology can be fun and make happy moments for millions, but it exposes its users making them becoming venerable to unknown surveillance and violation of privacy. Be careful what you sign up for because it can expose you to harm.