Privacy, Online & Off

The speakers in each TED Talk discuss how vital it is to recognize how social media is invading our privacy. Many of us use social media as a lifeline and do not fully recognize the negative impacts of using our favorite apps. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and so many more all breach our privacy and make it easy for us to be exploited. 

In today's age, we are desensitized to how truly invasive technology is. We use our Face ID or fingerprint to log into our phones, where we then log into apps that ask for our numbers, birthdays, and other forms of identification that are 'promised' to not be shared with the world. Hackers steal accounts and unlock the private information we entrust into the app.

A TED Talk that really spoke to me was Juan Enriquez. Tattoos are permanent. It is a fact that we all know to be true. So, how does that relate to technology? Well, our social media stores every post, like, or comment that we make, which allows employers to learn what they need to know about you before they meet you. This can also be true for face identification. Your face can automatically be identified from a post, which can lead people to find information such as your address or voting records before they have met you in person. It is a comprehensible way to understand how public and permanent your information truly is. 

These issues affect me and my family because we are all active on social media and I think we could be a little more cautious with our digital footprint. It is easy to overlook how much information we give into our cellphones and I think it is important to become educated on the negative effects.

While most of the companies taking our information and violating our privacy are privately owned, the government could strengthen privacy laws, forcing these companies to protect their consumers. I also believe the government should allow people to access their personal data through a series of questions to confirm identity. If it is our information out for all to see, we should be the ones to shut it down as well.

People need to learn how to protect themselves. We can take charge by setting strong passwords and enabling two-step verification, much like how Google operates. This means it is harder to get into the app you plan on using, and a hacker couldn't easily guess your login information. We could also adjust privacy settings, so fewer people can see our page or simply limit the information we share online. If it truly is an issue that someone cannot keep vital information about their private life to themselves and it is causing harm to their personal life, it could be a great alternative to just stop social media use altogether.