Thursday, November 3, 2011

What's privacy?

With the heavy use of technology and new media, our privacy is become more and more scarce.  Agencies follow most all kinds of activity from individuals, depending on how often they use the web.  Before writing this blog, I thought about how many different places online that I have an account or that I'm in some way plugged in to.  I have information all over the web and I feel pretty comfortable about it. As we discussed in class, I think it has a lot to do with personal responsibility.  If a user is always plugged in, they must be conscience of what they are posting.
On the other hand, we need to remember that everything we do online is being tracked.  We discussed the idea of looking up personal concerns online, such as medical issues.  I'm sure there are no individuals that would like to have this information tracked, but if a user decides to venture to the web for solutions to problems, it's a risk they will have to take.
Overall, the idea of privacy on the web is no longer common practice.  Since we use different programs on the web for free, we owe them some kind of payment.  If the idea of limited privacy leaves a bad taste in their mouths, then they should stray away from the use of new media.

1 comment:

  1. Joni -- is it really a risk we HAVE to take? Do we now have any reasonable expectation of privacy? My bank has several layers of security to protect my/their money...as a public policy major, do you think that there "oughta be a law" or two to protect us?

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