Illusion of Privacy

Technology has made it increasingly simple to watch people. Whenever you leave the house to go shopping, there's a good chance your on camera and nowadays you never know when you're being listened to while on the phone. Granted this is for security purposes, and people should expect a lesser amount of privacy while in public places.

I don't necessarily think that people are constantly being watched, listened to, or monitored but I do think that peoples activities create a trail that can be traced back to that person. Just from browsing websites we get tracking cookies that are automatically installed onto our computers. Some companies even sell our information to 3rd parties. The illusion of privacy is not to be blamed on any one assailant because methods of this madness come in all different shapes and sizes. It can be as small as a tracking cookie, or as big as a social networking site. It can be generic or personal.. While its obvious that Social networking sites have increased the ease of obtaining personal information, the illusion of privacy is something that existed long before facebook and twitter, and its here to stay.

Exposing yourself thru Social Networking

Like most things in life, Social Networking has its pros and cons. It sometimes reminds me of a breeding ground for useless information, but it's also a breeding ground of too much information. I just read an article about how participating on a social networking may eventually effect your insurance rates because "careless posts" potentially increase the chances of your home being burglarized. This could just be an easy out for insurance companies to exploit more money from people, but at the same time it makes sense because, as far as how much personal information is too much information to display to the public; social networking has created an epidemic of people who don't know where do draw the line.
For example, I recently joined the android phone craze and downloaded the facebook app, and now; not only does it show the standard facebook jive but when dialing a number, it shows numbers from my phone contacts and facebook friends list. This actually blew my mind. I was completely shocked by how many people actually had their numbers posted publicly, and thought to myself "why in the world would ANYONE want everyone of their facebook friends to know their phone number?" I know I don't! Social networking may be a great way to stay in touch with family and friends but it can also leave your personal information exposed to people with bad intentions.
Even though you may not verbally tell all, cellphones nowadays embed mobile pictures with gps "geotags" which, when posted online, can be hacked and show your location. So my advice to social "networkees" would be to cover up! Take advantage of security settings and set restrictions on your page. You never know who could be lurking your information.Its better to be safe than sorry and sharing photos or blogging just isn't worth the consequences that could occur if your personal information leeks to the hands of a creeper.

Just in case you're interested in reading more heres a link to the insurance article I mentioned, and more information on cell phone GPS tags

Hope everyone has an amazing Thanksgiving and a safe Black Friday!

Online Classes &

I've signed up for online classes because of convenience purposes. My boyfriend owns Video Trader in Heath (a small video game/dvd store) and he spends the majority of the week running the business, while I'm in charge of the e-commerce. Our son, Aidyn, is 2 1/2 and we are both the type of parents who are reluctant to put him in daycare (I'm not saying that daycare is bad, its just something I'd prefer not to do).

Taking online classes and working from home makes it easy for me to multi-task with work and school at the same time. And also being able to complete assignments on my time is essential for me with a little youngster in the house.

While I enjoy online classes, I do still try to balance them with more conventional classes because I really think that class room interaction is essential to the overall college experience.

Net Neutrality.. Why fix something that's not broken?

Net Neutrality is the Internet as we know it. It is the term used to describe everything on the internet as unregulated, freely flowing bits of information. Net Neutrality is the concept that there is no cast system, no hierarchy of information or order in which it is presented to us. You pay for your internet service, and once connected you're free to explore, create and make public anything you please! Sounds great, right!? So what's the problem?

The problem is big corporations with sticky fingers. Whenever there's something that's popular and unregulated, there a money tycoon who's lurking to make a profit off it. Big ISP companies are trying to create a hierarchy of websites by imposing new fees to allow the biggest spenders to be at the top of the webs visibility pyramid.

Here's a great video that better explains the big debate on the attempt to regulate Net Neutrality:



Which brings me to my question, Why fix something, if it's not broken? Is there something wrong with the format of information that's provided to us through the Internet? I don't think websites should be required to be top bidders in order to be granted access to the internet.

Putting regulations on Net Neutrality would eliminate any chance at a free playing-field to a websites access on the internet. If these regulations were imposed it would be devastating to both consumers and website domains. The increased cost to give free websites "better" accessibility would be passed on to the consumer, which would only cause a dramatic decline in the popularity of that particular website. It would also take away the true essence of Internet freedom which Tim Berners-Lee had in mind when he was developing the World Wide Web.



Click here to sign a petition to support Net Neutrality.

References:

Save the Internet: Frequently Asked Questions. (n.d) Retrieved October 26, 2010 from http://www.savetheinternet.com/frequently-asked-questions?gclid=CMKLk9rT8aQCFRpO5QodiCZE1A

Save the Internet: Two Million Strong For Net Neutrality. (n.d) Retrieved October 26, 2010 from http://act2.freepress.net/letter/two_million/

What... the heck?!

Right now I am very stressed and confused. So far I've really enjoyed college, and the learning experience that goes along with it. All of my professors are really cool, and great at what they do. I have been working very hard on all of my assignments in all of my classes, and I know that several other people in my classes have been as well. This being said, the workload this quarter has been stressful, and often confusing. I don't know if its because this is my 1st quarter in college, or if its because its my first online course ever taken, or maybe there's just been a big misunderstanding among teachers and students..

The due dates and correspondence which I've received for this class have completely thrown me through a loop. While I thought that I was on-track with my assignments, it seems that I am somehow a week behind? I was under the impression that this blog creation was due on the 31st, but was recently informed that it was due the 24th? Which doesn't fit the deadlines that were e-mailed to the class a few weeks ago.. Which makes me wonder when the midterm assignments are due?

I thought this was going to be a relatively smooth mid-term week, but now I'm STRESSING about due dates, which assignments are due, when they're due and how I'm going to manage to finish all of these assignments in such a short amount of time! I feel just as lost, confused and stressed out as I was in the first week of of my Digifun class, (What a mess that was!! ha!) . If anyone has the answers to these questions PLEASE feel free to share, I could really use some guidance right about now!
Thanks and good luck to everyone on their Mid-Term week!