Category:Privacy in the Age of Technology is impossible

In today’s age of technology, can we truly say that we have privacy? Today, people tweet their location, what they are currently doing, and with whom, what is currently bothering them, etc. Utilizing Facebook to rant and provide information on what your likes are, posting pictures for friends, not to mention giving others insight into your intimate thoughts and conversations. Further, we have individuals using cell phones to sext their partners. Not all of these partners are honorable, thus when they break up or have problems, one click sends those personal pictures out to whomever desires to see them, and some of us who do not wish to.

But that is voluntary information exchange. What of the intercepts of all communications done by the federal government? With the war on terror, the NSA intercepts all text data, emails, cell phone calls, etc. for dissemination throughout the intelligence community. Granted, the amount of data is huge, but they have computers that sort through looking for key words. The problem is, all of this communication data is stored and available for anyone within the government to look at, with the proper clearance. The question arises, how long will it be before someone requests this information under the freedom of information act? Thus, privacy as we know it, is non-existent.

Obviously, with the availability of data, the lack of restraint shown by young, and older, individuals, information is readily available for anyone with the desire, or the ability to read it. I work in a school where students will communicate a drug buy over the phone, not even realizing that the cell signal can be intercepted, let alone overheard by individuals who can turn them in. Students seem to be ignorant of the lack of privacy afforded through the technology they take for granted on a daily basis. It is this openness that has removed all ideas of privacy through the technology available today.

In her article, Is it really possible to have privacy on the internet today,   Claudine Beaumont discusses the privacy problem that is circulating around Google and Facebook today. While Google is being investigated by numerous countries for its Google Map controversy, Facebook users are upset at the privacy settings constantly being tinkered with. Each of these problems further minimize the amount of privacy available to an individual on the Internet. It is this very loss of privacy that threatens to envelope those who use the available technology today. Unless existing privacy laws are amended to correct this loss of privacy, we, as users, will be faced with less privacy and more openness   in a cyber-world hostile to all users, not just novices.