Privacy vs Freedom
“I have nothing to hide”. I say it; we all say it. When asked if we mind if the government places more surveillance on our lives and our modes of technology, we don’t deem it that negatively because the government wont have anything on us. However, this is hardly the case. People do have things to hide; they don’t want their life to be an open book. Techno-logic, explained by Miller, relies on the ideology that an increase of surveillance is a consequence of a heightened dependence on computers and machines. Because we are becoming increasingly more dependent on these technologies, we have to ultimately give up our freedom of privacy. In doing so, the government can better protect us from terrorism and nefarious acts. However, is this a viable trade off?
Surveillance in a broader sense is the business model of the Internet. We do not even realize that we are actively participating in giving the government information when we post things on Facebook or share anything on social media sights. We use our phones all the time throughout the day, whether it is for GPS, texting, photos or browsing the web. All of our harmless activity on these machines is being tracked and stored by the government. If we look for something to buy on the Internet, business will take your searches and send you pop up ads of similar items on pages you previously visited. When I first saw this targeted marketing come up on my laptop I was extremely scared and confused about how companies could track what I was doing on the Internet, even if it was for the purpose of placing items I would probably be interested in right in front of me. Putting all of this seemingly harmless behavior aside, there is also personal information that we would not want to be disclosed. Personally, I wouldn’t want my credit card information or what prescription drugs I have took in the past to be broadcasted to everyone by the government. This personal information could be sent to insurance agencies or businesses to be used against us in order for them to acquire financial gain. Some people argue that they would not mind giving businesses some information as long as they can control what information it is. The difficult thing is controlling how much and what information is being sent to companies.
Not only do companies use these surveillance techniques to further their economic goals, but also these technologies give us virtually no choice but to agree to their infringement on our privacy. After watching the documentary Terms and Conditions May Apply, daunting thoughts flooded my mind. Most of the times when we use an application or product and a Terms and Conditions page shows up, we have to click agree. If we don’t then we cannot use that product. This is where they trap us. The agreement is usually hundreds of pages and who in their right mind is going to sit there and read through it all before hitting agree so from the moment we start using the service, our every move is being tracked.
Additionally, the movie shed light on a failed project dubbed Total Information Awareness. In response to 9/11, the goal for this was to collect every digital transmission imaginable. Through this, the government thought that if they collect enough data, they could see who is engaging in illegal acts and detect terrorist doings. On one hand, this program treated all of us like we were potential terrorists. On the other hand, though, it is comforting to know that the government is taking steps to ensure our safety with all of these horrible events happening around the country. But will the government abuse its power to spy on us? The trust in each other and the government is quickly fading due to all the technology we have at our fingertips.
I understand that my views have been pretty dismal thus far, yet thinking about the government and companies knowing all of my in formation, whether detrimental or not, is unnerving. I have been trying to think if all of this technology is really worth having my privacy rights taken away. A juvenile example is when I would go on the ‘family’ computer in the computer room when I was little. My parents gave me a designated time when I could log on and log off and I had to keep the door open at all times. Even though I wasn’t doing anything bad on the computer, I felt like I needed to close the door; I just didn’t want anyone seeing what I was doing- which was probably IM’ing or online shopping. This notion of privacy is still relevant. I know that my parents were just trying to protect me and it was for my own safety, just like the governments intentions. However, it is still nice to have a little solitude and secrecy in a world where everything is public.
In a perfect world, there should be a balance between how much information is collected to ensure our safety while still maintaining a level of privacy every one is comfortable with. But, the increasing technology that is a necessity for us makes it very difficult to figure out how to create this balance. In the future, I truly hope that my trust in the government will not be proved incorrect. I know that in order to keep using certain technologies we will be forced to live in a world with eyes on us at all times, I just hope that people are aware of what the government and themselves are doing.
