Technology- Private or Public? Technology has blurred the lines between what is private and what is public information.

by gsd755 (student)

Sibori

Gabriela Sibori

Mrs. Brown

Per. 3

5/9/12

Technology has blurred the lines between what is private and what is public information. In many areas of the United States today, The FBI is now admittedly recording Internet talk radio programs all over the United States. If you call a radio talk show and get on the air, you might be recorded by the FBI. According to a 2011 article by Bradley Gross “The FBI has awarded a $524,927 contract to a Virginia company to record as much radio news and talk programming as it can find on the Internet.” Over the years, our society’s dependency on technology has unquestionably increased. Technology has gone too far.

Most search engines save all searches and can track it back to address. People should be able to look up information without having to compromise their privacy in any way. None of their personal information should be collected or shared in any way when searching. When you search for something private, you are sharing that private search not only with your search engine, but also with all the sites that you clicked on (for that search). Also many search engines actively use this information, for example to show you more targeted advertising.

Phones can be tracked or tapped in to. According to a recent article by Jason Welch (2011) “Cell phones are easily tapped by anyone who purchases and downloads software from any of several on-line companies.” The cell phone owner does not know, and software programs can monitor phone calls and text messages. As a result, government officials can learn a tremendous amount of detailed personal information about you by accessing your location history from your cell phone company, ranging from which friends you’re seeing to where you go to the doctor to how often you go to church. Law enforcement ...

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According to a 2011 article by Sarah Jones “Advancements in the collection of biometric data are double-edged: there's the threat of a massive government surveillance infrastructure working too well, surveillance state -- and there are concerns about its weaknesses, especially in keeping data secure.” With the increasing demand for and applications of biometric devices come serious ethical and legal questions and concerns. Chief among these considerations is privacy. The storing of such intimate biological detail in large networks sparks fear of serious privacy invasion, as well as possibilities for severe misuse. Just how far a business or government has the right to look into the identities of individuals in the name of security was a matter that was just beginning to draw serious attention from government, industry, and various organizations in the early 2000s.

Technology that can see, hear, track, and record everything you do is already here, and it's getting better, smaller, and faster. Technology isn’t going to go away any time soon. The use of new technologies only seems to provide simple extensions of the ways in which our privacy has been traditionally invaded. While all U.S. citizens have First Amendment rights and the hallmark of America is freedom of speech, using technology to invade someone’s privacy is wrong.

Works Cited

Gross, B. (2011, June 12). You Have No Privacy On Mobile Devices. Get Used To It.

Jones, S. (2011, January 10). Five Things You Should Know About the FBI’s Massive New Biometric Database.

Welch, J. (2011, August 4). Government Cell Phone and GPS Location Tracking