Privacy

Privacy is something that is valued by every individual. It is important to keep your personal information safe and protected, especially in a world where everything you do is monitored. Though the technology itself is very useful, it is a double-edged sword since it also allows for an excessive amount of surveillance. Digital privacy should be one of everyone's top priorities. 

Privacy, especially digital privacy is important to normal people just like you and me. Most may think invasions of privacy mostly happen to people of power since their information is "more valuable". But to the companies and the government, information is information. Social media like Facebook, Instagram, and X are big ways to how information can be gathered from you. In this video, Juan Enriquez compares people interacting with social media, that being liking, posting, or commenting to a tattoo. He states that tattoos are something visible and permanent that can say a lot about your character. By interacting with social media or anything on the internet in general, companies can create generalizations or profiles on you. They can see that you like black dresses for example and recommend black dresses online, or in person since cameras can now capture your face and connect it to your socials.

Some of Enriquez's points are further explored by Christopher Soghoian's TedTalk. Soghoian talks about how the government, a foreign government or an unknown party can always be watching and listening to you through your phone or any electronic device. More recently, independent apps or companies like Apple and WhatsApp have built-in encryption software that is made to keep your texts and calls private from the government.  

These privacy issues affect us because our information is very important. Especially because most times people do not know their privacy is being invaded. What if your credit card information was stolen? What if your bank account information was leaked? This is very important stuff and companies have all this right at their fingertips. It affects everyone since these big companies or even the government can have their systems compromised and your information could be released to the world just like that. And this has happened before. For example, Vodafone Greece, the largest telephone company in Greece was compromised by an unknown entity. The hacker then proceeded to wiretap the Greek prime minister and cabinet. 

To protect yourself from your information being explicitly leaked by not posting excessive amounts of information about yourself on social media. You can also implement strong passwords into your accounts, like your bank account. Using encrypted apps, like WhatsApp also helps to keep chats private. In addition, turning off Ad personalization on websites can stop them from tracking your interests, thus preventing them from creating a profile on you.