Post #13

Do We Really Have Privacy? 

Out of all the videos posted on our class blog, this was the one that shocked me the most. We live in a society where everything is streamed, and dont think about the possiblitly of our "private" devices getting hacked. When Ted Talk speaker Finn Lützow-Holm Myrstad showed how easy it is to hack into a childrens toy named Cayla through bluetooth flaws, I began to research how frequently kids toys had to be recalled, as well. The Furby Connect, i-Que Intelligent Robot, Toy-Fi Teddy, and CloudPets were four out of seven intelligent kids toys that Which?, a German consumer group, found to have security flaws. 

If it is so simple to hack into numerous childrens toys, due to the poor BlueTooth system, let's imagine how easy it is to hack into well known devices such as our smart phones, or even our computers. Do we really live in a world with privacy? I find this truly scary. We hold so much of our lives inside out smartphone, including our locations, passwords, personal information, address, and so on. In addition, most of the newer generations are super eager to sign up to popular social media sites like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, to name a few, and basically share as much information as possible to ensure that other know what they are up to. Like I have mentioned in a previous blog post about my social influence and footprint, I too am guilty of this. And while I don't necessarily see it as a threat or potential danger to the extent we have been talking about in class, I probably should. We have also discussed how the many online media sites require a "terms of use" in order to sign up and take part in the website. But the unfair part is how confusing, not to mention LONG, these agreements are. How many people actually read them? A Deloitte survey with 2,000 participants asked this question and found that about a crazy (but not shocking) 90% agree to terms without reading it first. And for people ranging from ages 18-34, the percentage increased to 97% (Business Insider). 

With that being said, many don't realize how many companies include their use of your personal images and information in those terms. And by agreeing with them, we agree to letting them do this without realizing it. Now, I'm not saying that we NEED to read these 10 page 12 point font term of use. I think what we need to take from this is to be aware of what we post online, share, and even purchase, and most importantly, we should try to do something about this. The more people that become aware of this issue could lead to more straighforwardness from these big name companies to let us know what we are truly getting ourselves into. 

How much privacy do you think you have?