Privacy: The Daily Give and Take

 Privacy is often thought of as an unspoken yet understood right. You don’t have to tell people around you to not ease drop on your conversations, people just generally know to be respectful of your privacy.

 However what happens when someone oversteps that barrier of trust. Or even worse what happens when it it your own government?

In America and across the entire globe, one thing we all have in common is our use of technology. No matter the level of advancement we all use in some way in order to live our daily lives. 

Whether its driving a car to work, checking the forecast, calling in sick or mowing the lawn. Technology is universal, and it is everywhere for everyone to use. 

The problem is when it gets misused, Christopher Soghoian spoke about the early inventions of cell phones. He emphasized that they were first and foremost created with surveillance in mind. In today’s world they have certainly kept up with that original idea. 

On apps like Snapchat you can go on and see where anyone is at any moment. If you don’t want your location to show you have to go in and manually uncheck that box. It is almost as if having everyone who follows able to track you at any moment is normal. 

The government is not naive of this information, in fact it was their idea in the first place. Cathrine Crump’s Ted Talk topic was on just this the amount of surveillance that the government has on us. She explains that police cars and certain polls on the highways take periodic pictures of everyone’s license plates. 

This information is used and kept on hard drives just in case they will need it later. She also explains the idea of the phone dump. Phone dumps are used by police to see which phones were in a certain area at a given time. If you are hearing these terms for the first time they can sound creepy and like an invasion. 

However, personally this is not the first time that I have heard of such things. Phone dumps can be very helpful for police to solve crimes. For example, lets say a young woman goes missing on a busy street corner with no cameras. 

Cops could use phone dumps to track her phone and see if there is another phone near her during the time of her abduction. That phone likely belongs to her captor and that could help police find her or at least see who has taken her. 

Off all of the Ted Talks that I watched the one that was most compelling was the one by Darieth Chisolm. She spoke about her traumatizing experience of being a victim of revenge porn. When her controlling ex-boyfriend couldn’t accept the break up, he posted nude photos he surreptitiously took of her while she slept.

However finding out was just the beginning of her story. She discovered though this process that there were’t any laws to protect her form this violation. In the study of victimology, which is the study of victims as they are effected by their crimes. She is a perfect example of how trauma can effect victims for a very long time.

 Revenge porn,  is when people post fake explicit photos or videos of a person. Or they post real photos and videos without the persons knowledge or consent. It is something that we see a lot more in the news today and it has had devastating effects on victims lives. 

In todays world technology and privacy go hand in hand and it is looking more and more like you can’t have one without the other. None of these topics made me feel fearful however I do feel more aware of the different things that are possible. 

Especially where there are not that many privacy laws or protections when it comes to social media apps of today. However I am hopeful that with more public concern and with more people advocating like Darieth Chisolm we will see reform in the coming years. 

EOTO Reflection: Gatekeeping In The Media Today

 

One of the terms that was most interesting was the concept of gatekeeping. Gatekeeping is when someone  deliberately keeps information from others in an effort to keep the information to their self. This can be done on a small safely between friends who lie about what perfume they’re wearing. 

Or it can have a much darker side and be between government and citizens. Imagine if instead of a friend lying to you it was your government. This is the main concern with Gatekeeping, some people wonder how we can have a democracy if the government is picking a choosing what to tell us. 

This is why whistle blowers are vital to our society, we as the people have no idea what our government could be lying to us about at any given moment. However by having inside sources and government employees we are able to get access to classified documents. 

The term Gatekeeping has also become way more mainstream in todays world anyway. On the popular social media site TikTok it has become a popular joke that many creators include in their videos. They may say things like “ I got this rug from … because I’m not gonna Gatekeep”. 

Though it is in a more lighthearted setting in todays world it isn’t a term people are unfamiliar with. 

Though it makes you think about it in a political setting how how it could be potentially dangerous. Had Edward Snowden not leaked government documents about the spying software that the NSA we might not have ever known about it. 

I found it interesting the way that both of these topics perfectly overlap. They are also still extremely  relevant topics of today. With the way the terms have come into the media today on more mainstream platforms, I have hope that people will start to take closer looks at things in our government as well. 

 

EOTO #2: The Whistle Blower

It’s a high pitch sound that invades the ears of all who can hear it’s it commands your attention. It’s a the sound of a whistle, and it makes sense that when government employees offer information about wrongdoing that they would share the same name.  

Whistleblowers have been around for a long time since around 1700’s with Benjamin Franklin thought to be the first. He was accused of treason by British Government when he leaked documents for a lieutenant. 

These document included treatment of colonies that he deemed unjust according to a piece written by the National Park Service. 

Though a lot has changed since then, today we still have countless whittle blowers. Two that are most popularly know would be Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. They both leaked government document in the 2000’s. Their lack of silence changed the world at the time and the effects still linger today. 

Edward Snowden, at the time was working as a contractor for the NSA. Prior to that he worked for the CIA so he wasn’t new to being a government employee. However, during his time working for the NSA he discovered a software that the government has created and was working on. 

This software was created with the purpose of monitoring American Citizen’s private conversations. This includes phone calls, emails, things on our webcams, as well as our text messages. 

Snowden leaked this information to the public by working with journalists to help him release his story. After that he was facing treason charges from the US government. Because of this he fled to Russia where he still lives today. 

In recent news he was just granted Russian Citizenship where he lives with his wife and child.His story was so big that it was turned into a moved called Snowden, it details his life leading up to and after the news broke. 

Julian Assange has a similar story, though with not as much of a happy ending. Assange was a talented hacker who ended up creating his own website called Wikileaks. 

The point of the website was to allow people to upload confidential document that revealed wrong doing except it would be completely anonymous. 

Though it sounds like a good idea it caused lots of problems for Assange. Especially when he was accused of conspiring to collect classified documents. After an Army analysts submitted documents to Assange he was accused of helping her retrieve them. 

He has since been detained without being charged which has sparked global outrage. In recent news he is supposed to be getting extradited from Britain to the US where he will face charges. 

It is important that we have whistleblowers because they prevent the government from lying to us. Also it allows us to stay informed about things that are going on in the government. However, even though whistleblowers do a noble job they are the only ones who take the fall for it. 

In both cases Edward Snowden and Julian Assange both lost so much for their involvement. Snowden lost the ability to live in America. And Assange lost something far worse, his freedom.

Personally, as a future Journalist I know that though out my career I will see my fare share of whistle blowers. Especially now living in a society that has become increasingly more an more intolerant of injustice. My hope however, is that people like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden won’t be punished for revealing wrong doing. 

Through out the course of this class I have learned about the injustices that have plagued our America for Centuries. What I want to know is when will we become a society that respects those who chose not to sit in silence but instead stand for the truth, no matter how scary it may be.