Privacy Online and Offline [#9]

 Your Online Life

    Juan Enriquez: Your online life, permanent as a tattoo | TED Talk

    Enriquez talks about how your online life is never personal, it is never secret, it is never protected with these big companies such as Facebook and Google. Your information, your photos, your posts: in this day and age those things can outlive you.

    He gives us four lessons about privacy, the first one was a metaphor comparing our posts and time on social media to Sisyphus. A man from Greek legend doomed to roll a stone up and down a hill for eternity. Once you post your information, it will be rolling up and down for a long time. The next lesson is about Orpheus. Orpheus charmed his way into the underworld to get his beloved back and he could leave with her if he didn't look at her; he looked and lost her. If we go looking too far into the past, we might lose who we are now. The third lesson was about Atlanta, a great runner. She would challenge men to races and if they won they could marry her. Hippomenes ran against her and won, because he distracted her with golden apples. The golden apples are the ideas for a tweet or a post, don't let those things get in the way of your race. The final lesson is about Narcissus, don't get caught staring at your own reflection. 

    We are being threated with our entire lives staying on the internet for eternity, don't give them everything.

    Finn Lützow-Holm Myrstad: How tech companies deceive you into giving up your data and privacy | TED Talk

    "...because if we know that something innocent we said will come back to haunt us, we will stop speaking. If we know that we are being watched and monitored, we will change our behavior. And if we can't control who has our data and how it is being used, we have lost the control of our lives."

-Finn Lützow

    Lützow talked about how the toy doll Cayla, was an invasion of privacy and a danger to children. Anyone could connect to the doll (in the range of it) and tell the child who was holding it, anything. There was no security or any type of privacy policies to protect whoever used the doll. Even if you do not own this doll, your security may be at risk.

    Lützow continues to explain about terms and conditions contracts that you find with every app you download. The terms and conditions almost no one reads before hitting accept are getting you stuck in a legally binding contract that you cannot get out of. Most dating apps have access to all of your photos, your information, and anything you give them to do whatever they want to with them. Him and his team sat down and read out loud the terms and conditions of the most popular app for your phone on a stream; it took them 31 hours to finish. It is ridiculous that these companies do this, for we cannot fight this battle alone as consumers, we need the government to step in and make change.  An app contract should never be 900 pages long.