Privacy

Without question, the issue of privacy is becoming one of increasing concern in today's America. There are countless ways that people can use information to harm another person, and these attacks can come from large entities such as the government as well as from individual people. What's worse, there's little to no protection for victims of such abuse in terms of internet laws that prevent the exploitation of information on and through the internet. Two of the TedTalks we were asked to review stood out to me in particular, and I think that both excellently highlight the issues with the extreme tactics available and what little measures are in place to protect us from them. 

Firstly, the talk about police surveillance excellently highlights the innocent nature of most of the people being spied upon by the government. The police is supposed to be designed to protect and serve the people, so why on earth would they store the data of innocent people "just in case" they might need it later. Our justice system guarantees that we as American's are innocent until proven otherwise, so it seems that the storage of such images as countless scans of regular license plates only serves to protect the state, not the people. Just because we can do such a thing like scan every car that drives by an area, does not give the government the right to use these tactics. It makes people feel unsafe in their own country and can only serve to breed distrust among the government and the people. It's obvious that these entities feel powerful enough to disregard that bond of trust that was guaranteed in the Constitution.

The second video that struck me in particular was the analysis on Revenge Porn. I think it surprises people to know that this is a common issue; we hear about it in the media as pertained to celebrities and politicians but I think a lot of people assume that something about their status as a "regular person" somehow makes them immune to the risk. However I think that more people should get involved this issue as there are so few laws that enable victims to get their photos taken down and other necessary protections without expensive and arduous court proceedings. This is something that definitely needs to be addressed in our society. The internet was not build as a tool for targeting people in this way, and we should work harder to protect the people using it.

Overall, its quite clear that our privacy in this country is a complete illusion. What's additionally upsetting is that the very groups that these intense privacy violations were intended to target are already well aware of them and know how to get around them, which only leaves average Americans left to violate. People should try to educate themselves on what is happening so they are aware of their rights in all situations, and hopefully can retain what little privacy we have left.

https://www.ted.com/talks/glenn_greenwald_why_privacy_matters