Privacy, Online and Off

 Many of us think we have privacy in our daily lives, but that's not entirely true. There are many ways our privacy can be invaded, and it's not just a problem for celebrities or public figures, it's something everyone should be concerned about.

Talking about "electronic tattoos,"  Jaun Enriquez compares them to digital traces. Like real tattoos, these also disclose a great deal about us. I was reminded by this how little privacy everyone actually has. Social media, for instance, tracks everything we do and functions like an electronic tattoo. Our faces can be captured and our information stored by even security cameras in stores, which I always assumed were there for safety reasons. Our personal information can be accessed by anyone with just a quick look at a camera thanks to sophisticated facial recognition technology. Although these technologies are improving, it is also easier for our privacy to be violated.

 I became aware of how government surveillance poses a significant risk to our privacy after seeing Catherine Crump's TED Talk. She describes how license plate tracking is done by cops using cameras all the time. These cameras violate our privacy even if the government may pass legislation requiring the deletion of useless data. Mike Katz-Lacabe found out that pictures of his vehicle and license plate had been kept on file by his neighborhood police department. Upon requesting access to the data, he discovered images of his girls and himself taken in their own driveway. Katz-Lacabe had done nothing wrong, but the police held onto these pictures, saying they might need them in the future.

Although it frequently varies on the service provider, many consumers think their phone conversations and communications are private. Companies like Apple and WhatsApp employ encryption to prevent wiretapping, as Christopher Soghoian points out. However, a lot of cell phone networks were built for monitoring, which means that hackers, thieves, and governments might listen in on your calls. In order to safeguard our privacy, Soghoian recommends that more businesses employ encryption. By making it more difficult for unauthorized individuals to access our gadgets, this would make it safer for everyone even though it makes it more difficult for authorities to apprehend criminals. 

Our everyday lives are not as private as we would believe. Our privacy can be violated by phone networks, social media, security cameras, and government surveillance. We may better protect ourselves in the modern digital world by being aware of these risks and advocating for improved privacy protections like encryption.