Blog #9 Privacy Online & Off

After watching all the TED talks I honestly went immediately to my laptop and phone and erased multiple things, cleared my search history, and tried to do what I could to make myself feel safer although I know so much of my information is already circulating in databases. The topics discussed in the TED talks are all very relevant to me in my personal life as well as millions of others across the world. Every day millions of people sign up for an app or service and willingly give away multiple aspects of their personal identity without even questioning it. This is a huge issue. 

 

The personal story given in the Ted Talk about revenge porn was very eye-opening. I feel that it is uncommon for TED Talks to be so personal so that one really stood out to me as unique. The topic is also not talked about very often so it stuck out to me most after thinking back to all the Ted talk topics I watched for this blog post. The most surprising thing about the revenge porn video was that there is little to no punishment for people who publish graphic nude photos without the person's consent. It also shocked me that there was just one law in place to protect and help those involved with a revenge porn case. 

The second TED Talk that stood out to me was the one about Proton Mail, in this video scientist, Andy Yen speaks about how the world must come together and agree that privacy should be the top priority. We must decrease spending on advertising and transition that focus to advancing privacy. He described his personal journey in creating an email service in which messages are sent and received without the server reading the message. Only the receiver of the message can read and see it. Protonmail had substantial growth and funding that they believe it can become universal with help from others across the world. We must all agree that privacy is imperative and we must ensure it is not on default mode. While these platforms are very tedious and challenging they are possible. 

I think that the government needs to reevaluate the way they interact with the private and personal data of US citizens. I think that there needs to be a database where each app or communication industry stores their user's data and it is protected from hackers and those with bad intentions. The government should be required to ask permission to access that information since it should be privately owned by the app. The data needs to stop being sold and accessed for pleasure or personal monetary benefit. Users should not be afraid to sign up for an app or mailing list, as consumers we should be able to trust companies, big or small with the personal information that they require us to fill out. I also think that the government should teach Americans how to use and access a VPN to keep them safe from viruses and hacks on their personal devices. It is frightening to recount how much data we share online and how much we are being surveillance on an everyday basis. We can try to protect ourselves by being more educated and aware of the big data companies that try to steal personal information from innocent civilians.