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.