Privacy:

At first, I didn’t think companies could sell the personal/private data of individuals to other companies. When it comes to my own personal privacy, I don’t like the feeling of being watched or tracked without my knowing consent. This is especially true as it relates to the government being able to purchase my private data that has been secretly acquired by other companies. When thinking about stuff that you put on the internet, it’s kind of like an electronic tattoo. In class, we looked at different videos on privacy and one of them was about how your online life is a permanent tattoo. Juan Enriqez explains what an electronic tattoo is during the video. Juan says that an electronic tattoo is basically a virtual tattoo. When you are on any kind of social media, you are putting out your personal information and it’s telling a story, just like a normal tattoo would. 

Everything you put out on social media stays there forever and can affect future endeavors for a job. Some examples of this on social media would be if you said some racist, homophobic, transphobic, or even xenephobic remarks can ruin your political career and professional career. One example of this would be when a police officer in South Carolina posted a picture of him in confederate flag underwear on social media days after a white supremacist killed 9 black people in their Methodist Episcopal church where they worshipped God. The department in North Charleston South Carolina fired him. It’s extremely hard to get rid of anything online because of the iCloud, which in most cases, immediately stores all data. Another topic we talked about was how Apple devices are now requiring you to provide a Face ID if you want to have a password on your device. I didn’t think it was that big of a deal, but it actually is for several reasons. It can lead to identity theft because if a company gets hacked, the hackers can access all of your credit card information and use it to buy things or destroy your credit score.

As we continue to live in a digital age, it’s necessary to know some ways that you can protect yourself online. The first way you can protect yourself is to make sure your phone is completely turned off when you’re having a serious talk with someone so the government can’t tap into your phone and listen. Another way that you can protect yourself is to unplug any kind of Alexa Amazon device that you have because they listen to whatever you're talking about in order to accommodate your needs the next time you shop on Amazon. Companies shouldn’t continue to store information and sell it to other companies, as this can be seen as violating people’s privacy. Instead, companies should focus on improving their security so hackers can’t easily access other people’s information. Another solution we could possibly implement is having kids take classes in schools to teach them how to protect their digital footprint online. This will benefit them as they get older in helping to avoid facing major consequences such as losing their job or damaging their reputation.