“The Circle” is Dave Eggars 10th novel. This novel tells tail of a 20 something year old girl named Mae working a Tech Company while she tackles some important issues. Issues such as the rise of technology posing a possible threat to the modernization of the world, to the most personal issues such as love and lust or just family and health.

The company relies on social media for its employees to communicate with its consumers, but their social media program is on a whole other level and it makes our social media today look over used and completely un-private.

The Washington Examiner reported on Google and how in the privacy contract most all people look over states that they can view all the data of what services you use and the information you input in to those services. (Sterner) But when all you’re doing is using your phone to make a phone call why would all that be necessary?

In the same Washington post article Sterner mentions all the information we give Facebook just to use it. One billion users on Facebook share about 5 million items a day and that’s excluding the information you give to them when you sign up. In every way possible we have basically surrendered our rights of privacy just due to the fact we do not read the privacy contracts between the social media apps we use. (Sterner) It really makes you think about what information you have already given up about yourself.

In the same hand another social media apps privacy contract in a way “owns your soul” says The Daily Beast. This app is Snapchat The first mention of snapchat everyone hears about are the self-destructing pictures you can send to people. You can send up to a 10 second clip to a friend and it will never be seen again, or so you think. In all actuality nothing you send or post is really ever gone. The terms of service that again we pass through and accept basically say that Snapchat can do whatever they want with what you snap. (Daily Beast) So much for the infamous self-destructing pictures now.

Also in most apps such as snapchat and Facebook location services are used 24/7 if the app is open and your location is on. If you accept the location to turn on through an app once most of the time it will automatically connect your location every time your location is simply just turned on. Through your location the apps can obtain information through your everyday use of the apps.

For apps such as Instagram Facebook and twitter geotagging your location through pictures or status’ is a big thing. It’s a good way to show people where your memories are. But it’s a bad way to release more information about yourself through the internet. The other problem with such location services is the people it can reach. Many times without even knowing pictures get geotagged themselves and sometimes it’s your own home. For some criminals they feed off things like these location services as a way to look for a place to rob.

In 2010 Good Morning America did a segment called “Dangers of Geo-tagging” and in the segment they mention a website called ‘I Can Stalk u” that automatically goes through twitter posts in hopes of finding geotags connected to photo posts. Just a simple picture of a lady’s cat gave that website the lady’s home address. (Worley) A better example that they mention on this segment talks about how MythBusters’ Adam Savage posted a picture of his car on social media and it simultaneously gave everyone that follows him his home address. “I Can Stalk You” is a website intended on only raising awareness to those who do not know about the dangers of the location services and will send you alerts if your post has made it onto the website. (Murphy)

As for snapchat to use certain filters for your pictures you have to have your location services on. It’s a pretty cool thing sometimes too because you can get different ones for different areas of states and cities you enter. Even some restaurants have made specific filters for their different locations.

Sometimes we cannot blame apps though. Smartphones and smart-cameras have evolved so every picture or video you take automatically has a tagged location and many people are not aware of this just due to the fact it is not visible to the common user. Many times you have to go through multiple windows just to view the location services screen.

Hackers are another problem of course, just a simple program could search apps for geotagged photos just like the website “I can stalk u” but these hackers look for special phrases you post with your pictures like “on vacation” or “my new car”, and these hackers are not trying to help you. (Murphy) These hackers are finding out where you live, what you potentially own, and when you’re away.

The everyday people that view your posts of course are not the people you have to worry about. Privacy is not just about your location services being on or off, many times the people we do not know are there are stalking our every moves on social media. You could post a picture of yourself at a restaurant with your fancy car and those people are out there waiting for those types of pictures to go online so they can go steal your car, or worse they know you’re out of your house and they can go rob your house.

After reading this go change your location services, and go clean up your friends list on social media. You never know who’s watching you, and the scariest part about it is you could change it by paying more attention to what you post or by paying attention to what you agree to the terms of use for apps.

Also in the novel an eye opening program called See Change that makes everyone ‘transparent’ due to cameras placed everywhere and attached on to people. Those cameras record 24/7 or as long as the person is awake, and are backed up to a machine. At first the only cameras are on public officials, but as the book goes on Mae ends up needing to wear one herself.

While borrowing a kayak she finds outside the gate of her favorite kayak rental those cameras target her and send an alert because she was technically stealing. So when is does security truly make you transparent? “All things that happen must be known” (Eggars)

Security cameras in real life are getting more and more technological. They are no longer used for security purposes only and some cameras like Vidalife track and monitor every part of you and your family’s life. (Larson) It takes your movements and tracks them and stores them into files that you can later look up and watch. Movements such as playing with your dogs or children you can “like” and the technology will know that those action clips are your favorite and move them to a more relevant file. (Larson)

Cameras are not just in homes though and people are starting to feel like they have less and less privacy. Many problems have arisen in hospitals and doctors’ offices due to cameras we do not know that are there. At John Hopkins Hospital a Gynecologist was secretly taking explicit videos of his patients for his own personal use. In a place where women go to seek medical treatment in a private room a doctor many women trusted betrayed their privacy. (The Wasington Post)

Whether you agree to give your privacy away without knowing or your privacy gets taken away from you, the world is no longer the private place we all know and love. Everything in a way is known if you really look for it.