Technology consumes our everyday life. What we don’t realize is how much we are being exposed and watched on a daily basis. We are creating digital tattoos that will last long after we are gone. We have apps on our phones and cameras on our computers and on roadways that track our every move and provides data to the government and police. We are living in a world where “Big Brother” is watching us. The problem is that it is not only our government and police that are watching us and collecting data on us, but also hackers, stalkers, and maybe even other international governments.
With so much uncertainty in technology, we should be more aware of what we post, what we like, what we choose to see, and what is really behind closed doors. We should feel threatened by digital immortality. After watching the Ted Talks about technology surveillance and our digital footprint, I am concerned with my privacy and the privacy of future generations. We create a digital tattoo with every post we make that will never disappear, much like a tattoo. Facial recognition software can pull up information about us with the click of a button. We should therefore learn from the Greeks: Like Sisyphus, we need to watch our reputation. Like Orpheus, we must not look far into the past. Like Atlanta, we must be careful. And like Narcissus, we must fall too much in love with our online image.
Advanced military surveillance and weapons are making their way into local police departments as has been shown in recent protests. Our government agencies and police departments are able to use the cameras and technology to track and collect data about every single individual in our country. They can track where we go, who we see, and what we look at by means of license plate readers and cell phone towers. The government collects this data, but they know too much and it really isn’t necessary. They can use this knowledge for advantages, such as black mail and political reasonings. This is honestly scary and disturbing. Our government holds too much data and most of this information is not needed.
Since the beginning, telephones were wired for surveillance. Now, encryption by companies like Apple make it more difficult to “stalk” our every move. iPhones and WhatsApp for example have strong encryption so text messages can’t be viewed. Government may be mad at the tech companies because they have democratized encryption, but I feel better knowing I have some privacy. If we don’t take care of this now, our government, other governments, hackers and criminals will take over and own everything in our system. Our privacy will totally be in the hands of others worse than it is now. We need to build more secure networks so this doesn’t happen.
What I found very disturbing is the harassment shown on the internet. Relationships are no longer private between two people. Imagery can come back to damage and haunt people for years in forms of emotional blackmail. Stories of dolls with tracking devices can lead to kidnapping young children or spying on conversations to help other countries win and override other systems.
We need to be so careful. Nothing we do is private from the messages we send, the things we agree to accept before downloading an app, swiping through Tinder or liking a post on Facebook I started a personal Blog back in March during quarantine using Wix.com as a way of spreading positivity and documenting my experience during quarantine. I now feel a little more anxious about who really is seeing my things and who might be able to mess with my writing pieces or photos online. I do worry about hackers, but I never thought about the government watching my posts. I tend to keep my Facebook private and all of my photos locked up because I am in fear of others messing with my data and privacy. After watching these important videos, I have decided to be even more careful than I am right now with how much information I put out on the web because I never know what or who is behind my computer, my phone, and these apps. Technology is wonderful because it makes communication easy, but it is also negatively impacting our rights of privacy and legal freedoms.
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