Assignment 2: The Value of Digital Privacy in an Information Technology Age

Since the personal computing revolution, popular entertainment has given us nightmare scenarios of computers and machines taking over the world or threatening our security. From War Games to The Matrix to the Terminator movies, each depiction has seemed like science-fiction at the time, but in the new digital age, they may be closer to reality than we care to admit. And while cyborgs from the future aren’t coming back to exterminate us or are we playing against a machine capable of setting off a doomsday attack, the implications of how much information is available about us on the World Wide Web can set off a personal doomsday.
Ways to Find Data
For many people with questions, the first step towards an answer is logging on to the popular search engine Google. Simply type in a subject and click the search button and users are provided with page after page of information. You can easily find that recipe you’ve been looking for, the latest news headlines or personal information on yourself or your family and friends. A Google search can provide background information, phone numbers, addresses, photos and even directions and maps to your address. The popular search engine also provides e-mail services and cloud-based storage for documents. And while these services are password protected, e-mails stored on Google’s server for more than 180 days can be turned over to governmental agencies without a warrant or a court order. For messages newer than 180 days, law enforcement only needs a subpoena, issued by a prosecutor, to search cloud-based storage (Chooney 2012).
Since it was introduced as a networking site for college students, Facebook has risen in popularity and use. And while the site features the ability to select how little or how much you choose to reveal about yourself, most users never click on or set the privacy settings. On Facebook, users can share preferences for items or services, background information such as schools or places lived and even photos of themselves and their families. While most users use the site to reconnect with old and new friends or to stay connected to family, they often don’t realize just how much information that can will reveal on-line without thinking twice.
Facebook has also introduced a new application for Android devices called Facebook Home. The app acts like a skin for the Android operating system, providing a replacement home screen that automatically gives the user updates from the popular social networking site. The app also collects information about the user’s location, communications and actions that Facebook could sell to advertisers. The application can track not only messages sent through Facebook but also text messages sent on the phone and e-mails (Kelly 2013).
While many of us may recall the phone books of old, printed phone books are becoming increasingly obsolete thanks to sites like WhitePages.com. This site allows you to find people or businesses by city, state or zip. In addition, users can use a reverse phone number or address look-up to find out information on users. By entering a name and state, you can find out not only the phone number for a person, but also people associated with that person and current and previous addresses (though this is limited to cities).
Advantages and Disadvantages
If you’re looking to find that old friend from high school or college, the advantage of using Google, Facebook or White Pages is the ease and amount of information that can quickly and easily be returned in just a matter of seconds. Social networking allows us to stay connected to family and friends in a way that wasn’t possible in the past.
Allowing these sites to have access to GPS data from your cell phone can also have certain advantages. Should you need directions, Google Maps can determine your current location and the best route to your destination. It can also provide information to emergency services should you need their assistance. Another advantage of GPS systems is certain applications can monitor and transmit data about your exercise route so you can determine if you are meeting your goals or call for assistance should something happen to you.
And while there are advantages, there are also disadvantages. One of the biggest is that you may not be aware of if and how your information is being shared. Another is that many people don’t understand how the privacy settings on social networking sites work or can be adjusted as needed. This can allow for too much personal information to be available to just anyone on-line, whether it be the names of family and friends or our financial information.
One of the simplest ways to protect your on-line privacy is to take the time to read the privacy policy of any social networking site a user joins. Users can also make sure that their on-line account settings are at the highest level for privacy. This may require some reading and understanding of various settings and what is shared.
Personal information can be scrubbed from the Internet as well, but it will require contacting the various services that provide it in order to do so. Sites that provide the information will require proof of your identity before they will remove personal information from on-line searchable records. This may also require a bit of research and diligence to determine the procedures for removing personal information and how long it will take before the information is taken down.
Another way to protect personal information is a service like LifeLock. These services monitor your credit information and protect you from identity theft. They can also help you recover your identity and personal information should a case of identity theft occur.
Privacy Laws and Protection
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 extended government restrictions on wire taps from telephone calls to transmission of electronic data by computer. The act allows the government to read electronic messages stored on a server for more than 180 days without a court order, subpoena or warrant. The act makes it relatively easy for governmental agencies to demand service providers allow access to personal information on a server.
When the ECPA was enacted in 1986, the power and pervasiveness of the World Wide Web probably seemed like science-fiction. The current law allows the government to access a wide variety of information about a person that is collected daily by cell phone providers, social networking sites and other on-line sources.
In 2010, the Justice Department argued in court that cell phone users had given us their expectation of privacy about their location because they chose to share that information voluntarily with cell phone carriers (Helft 2011). The rules established by the ECPA depend on the type of information being sought and its age as well as how the courts in the local jurisdiction have interpreted the law. Citizens may not even be made aware that their records and date are being searched and often defendants can’t exclude the information gathered from court proceeding.
Most of us expect privacy and the ability to live life without fear or that our identity or possessions will be taken away. They should have the choice on if and how much of their personal information is shared and they should be made aware of the consequences of sharing too much or too little information.