The Extinction of Privacy Sara Castro
EN122

May 21, 2013

Most people believe that privacy is being totally alone, away from everything. Simson Garfinkel author of Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century writes “The problem with this word “privacy” is that it falls short of conveying the really big picture. Privacy isn’t just about hiding things. It’s about self-possession, autonomy, and integrity.” (Garfinkel, 2001) Every day we give away information. It may be a post about what you had for lunch on Facebook or a thought you wanted to share with your followers on twitter. It may be something not so obvious like being asked for your telephone number to partake in a drawing for free groceries at your local supermarket. Shockingly is the amount of far too personal information we share on a regular basis. Sometimes our most intimate thoughts in detail. (mbaylor, 2013) In an online survey done by MSNBC, when asked if they are worried about losing their privacy, 60% of Americans were concerned that they were losing their privacy. Yet, other studies show that although they seem concerned, they do the exact opposite of safeguarding that information. (Sullivan, 2006) Today, privacy is an endangered species bordering on extinction. Privacy in the 21st century is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. Unless we take more precautions and make our privacy a more valuable asset to our lives, we will cease to have any. Social Medias offer us a convenient way of keeping in touch with friends and family. Who has time to sit down write a letter, have photos printed and then buy the stamp to mail out the letter? Then a week later is when your friend or family member gets the news that you wanted them to get the week before. Social Medias such as Facebook and Twitter give us the ability to get information to loved ones out there faster, without compromising our time. We have become so comfortable sharing our lives in this manner that we lose the sense to differentiate what should be shared and what shouldn’t be. Unfortunately the information we divulge is not always seen in the best light and can cause some serious consequences. Take for example in Austin, Texas, Bobbi Duncan was outed as being gay through Facebook due to privacy loop hole, to most of her family and friends. This had devastating effects on the relationship between her father and herself. (Fowler, 2012) Another example is that of NFL referee Brian Stropolo. In September of 2012, Stropolo was pulled from a game between the Saints and the Panthers due to a photo posted on Facebook of the referee sporting a Saints t-shirt and hat. Although, Facebook continually sends out notices for increased privacy controls, many privacy researchers believe that that is the social media’s way of giving its users an “Illusion of Control”. (Fowler, 2012). Another means of communication between social circles is our phone, and I’m not just talking about talking to someone over the phone. Phones in this century are no longer just phones; they are almost everything to most of us. They hold the information that we need to function throughout the day. Our schedules, shopping lists, chores, what’s for dinner, our phones also give us up-to-date news information on world events and even the newest news on facebook. There are millions of apps that cater to making your life easier via your phone, but do we question what happens with our information when we use these apps. In 2012, Cara Pring did some research into some interesting statistics. In facebook over one billion posts are put in the span of one day. On twitters busier days they can see over 175 million tweets. Even on YouTube, every second someone is uploading an hour’s worth of video feed. (Pring, 2012). I believe that it does make our lives easier but are we really willing to give up our privacy to plan, schedule and communicate better? Tom Cochran writes “The currency of the 21st century digital economy is your personal information. It has no transaction costs and does not decrease in value when the supply increases. Contrary to the laws of economics, it may even increase in value with greater supply. The more information you provide to companies, the more value they can extract from it.” (Cochran, 2013) Have you ever gone up the cash register at a grocery store or even a shoe store and they ask for your telephone number? You give them your number and with just your telephone number they are able to pull up your name, your home address, and other personal information. As consumers we don’t usually give too much thought into the information that we so readily give, we don’t ask questions about what happens to our information after it is inputted into their systems. What many don’t realize is that a good majority of the time, what may seem like a pretty innocent question like what is your telephone number starts a chain of silent events. Your telephone number is then “acquired, analyzed, categorized, stored and sold over and over again”. (Sullivan, 2006) “Future attacks on your privacy may come from anywhere, from anyone with money to purchase that phone number you surrendered.” (Sullivan, 2006). Acxiom and Merlin are just two commercial data brokers that make their profit from selling unlisted telephone number obtained from various sources, believe it or not, even pizza delivery companies. (Sullivan, 2006). There are so many ways for companies to access our information, at times we give it to them and don’t realize it. Once again we take part in things like cloud service, or GPS navigation systems that store our information digitally. Cloud service allows us to access important documents from work that you need to work on at home or when you are on a business trip. Or let us say you want to show off your pictures of when you went to Hawaii on vacation, if you use the cloud service you can access it from just about anywhere. The give is that you the service provider for cloud service full access to your data. Also giving them permission to sell your information to other interested parties. (Cochran, 2013). In the 21st century we have access to what we need right away. Those companies that buy our information use to give us what we want based on our preferences, they personalize the experience for us and make our lives easier and some would say, better. The price to be able to get what we want and need, when we want and need it is our privacy. Can you accept that? That in order to better our lives it is at the expense of our privacy. (Cochran, 2013).
The amount of information that the government has access to is beyond belief. As a people we are all so ready to allow the government access to our most personal phone conversations, the most intimate details of our lives for fear they might thing we are hiding something. So we freely allow the government to invade our privacy because we have nothing to hide. In an article by Daniel J. Solove, he writes that people show no concern to the government gathering and analyzing our personal information. They declare “I’ve got nothing to hide, only if you’re doing something wrong should you worry, and then you don’t deserve to keep it private.” (Solove, 2011) In 2005 it was reported that the Defense Department office was developing a computer system called “Total Information Awareness”. It would grant direct and immediate access to all our phone calls, emails, web searches, financial statements, medical and school records, even our travel history. It would be able to obtain every single detail of our life, making us guilty without any proof. (Union, 2005)
Being able to share moments with loved ones on FaceBook or being able to make a bill payment online are things we do in today’s world that we don’t think too much about. They have become so part of the norm that we easily give out what information they need us to provide them with. I believe that the responsibility to protect our privacy is our own. Yet, we blame FaceBook when information we didn’t intend to share is let out. We give up our privacy to make our lives easier, to make our days run more efficiently. We post up pictures online for all to see and get angry when someone writes a negative comment. We are constantly sharing our secrets and private thoughts with the world. Yes, we manage our time better due to those apps that are ever so helpful. We allow our GPS to track and record our way home, letting know if there are any obstructions on the way there. Our privacy is dwindling away, on the verge of extinction. Paying the price for a better, more convenient lifestyle?

Bibliography
Cochran, T. (2013, May 7). Personal Information Is the Currency of the 21st Century. Retrieved from allthingsd: http://allthingsd.com/20130507/personal-information-is-the-currency-of-the-21st-century/
Fowler, G. A. (2012, October 13). Then the Most Personal Secrets Get Outed on Facebook. Retrieved from WSJ: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444165804578008740578200224.html
Garfinkel, S. (2001). Database Nation: The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century. Sebastopol: O'Reilly Media. mbaylor. (2013, January 26). The Death of Privacy in the 21st Century. Retrieved from Cloud Visions: http://cloudvisions.net/wordpress/2013/01/the-death-of-privacy-in-the-21st-century/
Pring, C. (2012, 02 13). Social Media Statistics. Retrieved from thesocialskinny: http://thesocialskinny.com/100-more-social-media-statistics-for-2012/
Solove, D. J. (2011, May 15). Why Privacy Matters Even if You Have 'Nothing to Hide'. Retrieved from The Chronicle of Higher Education: http://chronicle.com/article/Why-Privacy-Matters-Even-if/127461/
Sullivan, B. (2006, October 17). Privacy under attack, but does anyboody care? Retrieved from NBC News: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/15221095/ns/technology_and_science-privacy_lost/t/privacy-under-attack-does-anybody-care/
Union, A. C. (2005, September 14). Stop the Government Plan to Mine our Privacy with "Total Information Awareness" System. Retrieved from ACLU: http://www.aclu.org/print/stop-government-plan-mine-our-privacy-total-information-awareness-system