privacy ted talks

As much as you may think your information is private and protected, you must be careful what data you provide online. 

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Juan Enriquez refers to this information online as "electronic tattoos" because it can provide so much knowledge about you. 

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Catherine Crump details the government's surveillance method involving cameras that scan and photograph every car's license plate as they drive by. While they use this information to look for cars involved in wrongdoing, they also track innocent citizens in case they need this knowledge in the future. 

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Christopher Soghoian expands on how cell phones are built for surveillance, meaning governments, hackers, or large companies have access to any information that go through your phone. In recent times, our phones have been built with strong encryption systems to protect us. However, this has caused disruption in the government because they would like to surveil everyone to watch for terrorists or other dangerous issues. If this happens, innocent citizens will have to forfeit their privacy, a sacrifice many are not willing to make.

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Finn Lützow Holm Myrstad explains the dangers of a doll who listens, speaks, and connects to the internet. Anyone who has a smartphone can connect to the doll and speak to the child playing with the doll. He additionally points out the way people fail to read terms and conditions before signing.  However, this is not the consumers fault; it is the companies who purposely makes the contract so long and difficult to read so that you just sign it without reading. 

These people add unique arguments to the need for more online privacy in this incredibly online world. The examples these four individuals put forth worry and terrify me. My privacy and my family's privacy are important to me. However, I am conflicted because the government's surveillance for terrorists is important to protect the country. I do not know how to feel about this.

What do YOU think?

Privacy or Precaution

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They say Knowledge is Power, but is too much knowledge a thread to your privacy?

The Total Information Awareness was a program by the Department of Defense to monitor the activities of Americans and aliens to protect against terrorists. Pushed by Bush administration, this program's usefulness was reconsidered after the horrifying events on 9/11. Some people saw the T.I.A as a threat to the Privacy Act of 1974, which prevented the government from sharing personal information; other individuals appreciated the program because they felt more protected from terrorists and domestic terrorists.

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The New York Times describes the T.I.A's methods, stating that it

"develops data-mining and profiling technologies that could analyze commercial transactions and private communications."

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The in depth knowledge and information that the this program can collect about any and all American citizens is alarming to privacy advocates. 





Officially, the program was shut down in 2003 and but there has been rumors that its has been redesigned and it now operates under a code name.

As an advocate for the privacy of American citizens, I feel this is a violation of my privacy. However, because the program only monitors information and does not sell, share, and use my information, I can see the value in the program. If it protects U.S. citizens from violence and bloodshed, the T.I.A would definitely be a beneficial program.

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Sources:
https://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/15/magazine/the-year-in-ideas-total-information-awareness.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Total_Information_Awareness

Confirmation Bias

The Basics of Confirmation Bias

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Who: doctors, politicians, jurors, anyone and everyone
What: the tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting, information that is consistent with one’s existing beliefs (from Britannica)
Where: news, social media, politics, everywhere
When: since humans started sharing information to present day
Why: to protect their core personal beliefs, self-esteem, reputation as an intelligent person
How: ignoring or disregarding evidence against personal beliefs to focus on the supportive evidence

The Effects of Confirmation Bias

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DANGER!! This bias is dangerous because it leads people to ignore or disregard important evidence. This ignorance could cause major harm to people, the economy, the environment, or other things.

the cause and effect train:

confirmation bias   polarizes people with different opinions 

                              because each side refuses to see merit in the other's argument 

polarization  encourages a culture lacking empathy and encouraging fighting

unempathetic culture tension between groups increases 

                                          old vs. young,  rich vs. poor, male vs. female, gay vs. straight,       

                                          majority vs. minority

https://www.britannica.com/science/confirmation-bias

My Online Presence

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After speaking about privacy laws of online companies in class, I panicked about how much of my information was out there for anyone to see. However, I did a little research on myself and the minimal information that I found reassured me. 

results for searching my full name

When a googled different forms of my name (first and last, full name, nickname) I found different information but very little of it linked to me. My LinkedIn account was the first thing available but my Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter accounts never even appeared. Only two old pictures from a previous twitter account popped up when I searched my first and last name. The most invasive thing I found was my name on the HPU roster for the rowing team, which only listed my home state. 

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I am aware of the extensive amount of social media, shopping, and other accounts that I have online. To protect my privacy, I use nicknames or wrong information for most accounts. However, I could take these precautions one step further by clearing my cookies, throughly reading Terms of Use Agreements, and logging out of unused accounts. 

While I do not have a lot of personal information on the web, corporations such as Facebook and Google have likely collected some data on me that I would not like them to exploit. This has been a wakeup call for me to be more careful about what I post and share online. 

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The Diffusion of Instagram

The First Instagram post

Kevin Systrom post the first photograph on instagram on Jul 16, 2010, three months before the app launched to the public. Since then, Instagram has racked up 1 billion active users and the post now has 116,040 likes and 42,600 comments. How did Instagram grow from zero to a billion in less than 10 years?

When talking about how he managed to grow the social media platform so fast, Kevin Systrom said

The lesson I’ve learned is that you need to make sure to always cut what doesn’t work, cut the stuff that isn’t popular, and focus on continually improving your product and your focus… 

Companies go through identity crises and they figure themselves out over time, but I think it’s all about keeping what sticks and throwing away what doesn’t.

To demonstrate the diffusion of instagram and the growth of the app, we can look at the diffusion of innovation model

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Stage 1: The Innovators

In 2010, Instagram gains 100,000 users in the first week after Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger launch the app. Influencers, such as Jack Dorsey (twitter's co-founder), shared their love of the new app by word of mouth, attracting millions of people to check it out.

Stage 2: Early Adopters

Within 2 months, the application has grown to 1 million users. In June 2011, there are 5 million active users and that number doubles by September of the same year. Facebook buys Instagram for $1 billion in April 2012.

Stage 3: (Majority early & late)

By April 2012, 50 million people have become active users on instagram. This doubles to 100 million by February 2013. In June 2016, Instagram announces they have reached 500 million active users. Refusing to slow down, Instagram doubles this number again over the next three years. The social media platform is now worth an estimated $100 billion. 

Stage 4: Laggards

I am unsure if Instagram has reached this stage yet. It seems as though they are still growing and improving. However, my theory is that once my generation reach the age that our kids start making social media accounts, Instagram will be viewed as Facebook is today, obsolete and mostly used by older people. At this point, the app will have reached the laggard stage.  

In the graphic below, you can see that the active user numbers are continuously growing and have not plateaued or decreased yet. When this happens, the laggard stage will begin.

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Sources:

https://www.brandwatch.com/blog/instagram-stats/

https://www.referralcandy.com/blog/instagram-marketing-strategy/

https://mediakix.com/blog/how-much-is-instagram-worth-market-cap/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Instagram

https://www.underconsideration.com/brandnew/archives/instagram_2016_icon_before_after.jpg

The Value of Tolerance

The   Values of Free Expression are important ideas that demonstrate the importance of free speech. They values consist of 

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Marketplace of Ideas

Participation in Self-Government

Stable Change

Individual Self-Fulfillment

Check on Governmental Power

Promote Tolerance

Promote Innovation

Protect Dissent

In my opinion, the promotion of tolerance is one of the most significant value because it assists people in living in harmony with others.

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The right of free speech allows us to say what we want without they fear of our government preventing us. However, there are some limitations placed on us by society and our culture that discourage us from say certain words and phrases. These social restrictions vary bases on personal beliefs, location, and upbringing. Due to the variances of social norms, we may feel uncomfortable or unsure around people who say things that we believe should not be said. Usually, we cannot prevent them for saying these things because we believe everyone should have free speech. Our only choice is to learn to tolerate the person and their speech. 

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While we may not agree on which words and phrases should be avoided, we learn to agree to disagree out of respect for the other person's right to their own opinion. This toleration of other's who hold different beliefs than us, carry over into other aspects of our lives. When we accept those who are dissimilar to us, we create a more tolerable, understand, and therefore, peaceful society. 

The Camera Phone

First picture taken with a camera phone source

History

The first camera phone was created in 1997 by Philippe Khan at the hospital while his wife is in labor with their first daughter. He fused a camera and a phone together and the first picture was sent to about 2,000 family members. Everyone was shocked about the short time between her birth and the picture being sent.



In 1999, Kyocera Visual Phone became the first camera phone to be sold commercially. Originally called a "mobile videophone," it had a 110,000-pixel front-facing camera and was released in Japan first. The United States did not embrace the trend until 2002 when Sprint released the Sanyo SCP-5300. The camera phone's abilities was considerably comprehensive, containing flash, self-timer, zoom, filters and white balance control.

From there, camera phones took off and sales skyrocketed. Sprint, Sony, and Nokia, a leading Finnish manufacturer, released new phones with higher pixel capabilities and more camera features. Sprint's PM8920 had a designated camera button and a multi-shot option to take multiple pictures sequentially. Nokia's N90 featured a 2MP camera with autofocus and an LED flash.

Once the smart phone became popular, the growth of the camera phone was stunted. It was difficult for manufactures to fit the bulky camera into the coveted sleek design of the smartphone. However, in the recent 5-10 years cell phones manufacturers have stepped up their game to include high resolution cameras.

Nowadays, cameraphones are so common and frequently used that it would seem weird to have a phone without a camera and only a few people own regular cameras. Most grandparents, parents, teenagers, and kids use cameras on their phones on a daily basis. I myself have already taken over 25 photos today and its only 10:30am. In today's society, the camera phone invention shapes our personal interactions and how we use social media.

Source: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/camera-phone-history/