Okay, so at first, I was confused that Toy Smart company sold their customer’s personal information when they declared bankruptcy. They’ve stated that they would never share information under any circumstance according to their policy. It was irritating and foreshadowed danger that personal information provided for any company would not be in a safe place.
As shown in the video, all of the activities people conduct on their iphones can be used as resources for companies and even the government. Looking at Robert (director of FBI) who shook hands with Mark Zuckerberg appreciating his genius idea of having people post their personal information which could be extracted by the FBI.
Maybe I was a person who was so naïve to be part of the digital society. Before taking this class, I was not aware of how much surveillance we were under. Sharing of ideas, photos, daily activities through Facebook and Instagram could be monitored by the FBI, NSA, or AOL.
The most shocking scene in the video was when three people shared their consequences of sharing violent thoughts on their social media. How are people suppose to be aware of the fact that joking around with bad words on tweeters or Facebook would trigger a warning and involve the FBI to inspect their house and designating them as “potential criminals”
In addition, when it was said that “ data” can be deleted from the site but not actually gone, I was in shock becaus I recalled all the embarassing photos I’ve tagged myself in. I had intended to delete them but those would be deleted completely . I also remembered some comments and posts that I wrote when I was young without much thought.
Shockingly, the attitude that Mark Zuckerberg shows on the video seems to reflect an irresponsible attitute towards protecting his users. He was saying the users feel free to post their information because they trust him. Are we part of a cult made by Mark Zuckerberg in which we are willing to sacrifice our privacy and dedicate our personal information?. As stated in the reading, commercial entities like Facebook exploits users personal information without effort and at the same time monitors, records, aggregates, stores, and are sorted(284, Andrejevic). How could he as CEO of Facebook who has over 1 billion users speak in such way even if it was a joke, ignoring that the information is monitored and abused for commercials or government surveillance?
As the kid in the video, people create an account on social media as a platform to freely express themselves. We live in a world dominated by democracy and have the right to freely speak up and share our ideas. However, as they speak up, they are being “red flagged” and are being inspected and categorized as “potential criminals” sometimes ruining one’s vacation. It completely goes well with Lessig’s statement that “cyberspace is a perfect tool of control” First, it aroused as an icon for freedom; however, taking a closer look, the digital society is well constructed in a way that government would be monitoring and ringing the alarm for the police to come to the door. Thus, in my respect, I see the power distribution is set by government which is at the highest rank then the companies are helping the government to gather data, and we are molecules living in a controlled society.
- Most of the time, we do not read “term of conditions” which we have to, how should we raise awareness of the importance of reading?
- Digital society has spread and developed exponentially; however, people are not aware of the level of exposure of privacy. What are suggestions would you make for change?
To quote our professor, “knowledge is power.” I believe to an extent educating the everyday consumer can improve the number of users who read the “terms and conditions.” But in the end, to me, it all comes down the important the user puts on signing up to be part of the community. For example, with LinkedIn. College students and professional usually put being about of this community as a high priority because the benefits and access to resources they gain.