Invasions of Privacy

 I have always known that the government invades 100’s of thousands of innocent Americans privacy every day. Sometimes, I feel like somebody is always watching me. Even if I’m all alone in my own house. It is a very unsettling feeling, but it is becoming the truth of American society. That is why if we can limit what the government sees on our own, then we should do as much as we can. Posting things to the internet can be a great way of sharing who you are, where you’ve been, and where you’re going. But we should all limit what we post. I love the concept of “electronic tattoos”. It really puts it into perspective that what you put out there on the internet can stay there forever, you can’t hide from electronic tattoos. Facial recognition takes this to a farther step. There are some apps that have about 18 billion faces which will live far longer than our bodies. We should be careful what we post, don’t look too far into the past of those who you love on the internet, don’t fall in love with your own reflection, and don’t let someone be able to threaten you with your immortality, otherwise known as electronic tattoos. 

 

Besides people invading our privacy on social media, government surveillance is a huge threat to human privacy. Surveillance enables police departments to gather vast quantities of sensitive information. Local police departments have location surveillances in which they have access to everywhere you go. There are automatic license plate readers mounted on the side of the road and on police cards that keep records of every plate that passes by. This absolutely shocked me. I knew the government could track our locations if they wanted to but I didn’t know how much they were actively doing it to innocent citizens on a daily basis. They keep records of every plate that passes by so they can keep track of where all Americans are going, not just the ones who are wanted for wrongdoing.  This allows them to keep track of mass quantities of data that should really be private. It disgusts me how little privacy we really do have and how they think they can know a person just based on where they are going. The only way you can truly know a person is by getting to know them. Plate reader data includes: dates, times, locations, and even photographs that capture where you’re going and who you’re with. At the same time, the federal government is collecting this data from local police departments. The scariest part of all of this is that there will always be people who choose to use and abuse this technology to track specific people for selfish reasons. They also have cell tower domes that reveal the locations of 100s of thousands of people. Another similar device they use to track innocent people is called a stingray device which allows local policemen to track how many cell phones are in a given house or a neighborhood.  

 

There is also telephone surveillance in which companies sole purpose has been to build surveillance features into the core of their networks. This means someone could be listening to the call you are having with your best friend, your significant other, your family, a business call, etc. There are silicon valley companies that have built strong encryption technologies into their communication products, such as Apple, that make surveillance difficult. The government believes that all texts and phone calls should be enabled to the government. This is useful to help track down criminals of all sorts, but I believe American citizens need to be using more secured networks such as Apple in order to protect their privacy. 

 

One of the most saddest invasions of privacy I would have to say would be visibility. The most common misuse of visibility is revenge porn. This usually stems from a jealous ex, wanting revenge on an old loved one. Sadly, this usually effects woman the most.  Revenge porn is someone posting nude content of someone else without their consent to the internet. One in 25 woman are victoms of revenge porn and one in 10 women under the age of 30 are victoms of revenge porn. There should be a harsher punishment rather than a $500 fine.

 

It is absolutely terrifying to think about what the government is capable of that we don’t even know about. If we know that they have access to our location, text messages, and phone calls, who knows what else they have access to that we don’t know about. 

http://medlawlit.blogspot.com