When it comes to privacy on the internet, I feel that the two words don’t go together at all . When you think about it though,I feel like its common since, why do people act so shocked when they have a privacy breach with their information when they are the ones who uploaded it on the internet in the first place. I guess that this is a strange way to compare it but I think about it like telling a secret or being abstinent. If you don’t want anyone to know a secret, don’t tell anyone. The more people you tell, the more potential there is for other people to find out. Or, don’t want too have a baby, then stay abstinent. Sure there is birth control but its not 100%, JUST as setting your privacy settings online is not 100% sure your information is not going to be seen by those you don’t want it to be seen by. You take the risk of your information getting linked the second you hit the upload button. Solution? Start monitoring what you are uploading to others. As you know, I love infographics, and I was in luck when I found the one bellow to help explain the state of our online social media privacy.
In order to keep track of all I am doing online, I always write down what websites I have given my information to. I also set up privacy settings on all of them to keep my information as private as possible. With this is mind, I still know that what I secretly message to my friends has the potential to get out. Sure, I might make fun of some girls hair or something silly like that, but I would never talk about life changing events that could ruin my life if they were revealed online. When it comes to tweeting and changing my Facebook status, I always think about who is reading it and what I am posting. I would never want to reveal my information about me going on vacation, purchases I have made, my political views, or rarely just my opinion in general. I even don’t type my home address in my GPS, in-case someone breaks into my car. One time I had a drivers ed class and the teacher told me something that has really stuck with me. He said when you make choices in life “make sure you play the what if game” What he meant by this is that if you play out possible problems in your head and how you would solve them, then you would know what to do if the situation actually happens. Not only does this work in the driving world, but in social media to. Prepare yourself for any situation that might happen.
In closing, we as internet users should be concerned with this issue and the problems that can come from this is the future. As I said above, you can keep your privacy settings on, but they are still going to get to your information. The example you used in class was when the dad found out his daughter was pregnant through the baby Target ads he was receiving I am sure that this girl didn’t just post on a site that she was pregnant, she simply had her purchases tracked online. This is not scary to me because I am aware of this, but MANY internet users are not. I think we need to do a better job as a society to inform them. What will it take? Government regulation that is not there. When you think about it, why would they want to intervene. This information is helping them solve murders and crimes, when the only thing its doing to us is embarrassing individuals by showing our deepest secrets. Who knows what will happen in the future.
Lane Elaborates... 