Blog post 7

TED TALKS 

After watching the ted talk videos and hearing that apps I use daily don’t keep my privacy and data safe definitely freaked me out. In the first Ted talk which was presented by Juan Enriquz he talks about how our social media platforms are like a digital tattoo. The digital tattoo is basically everything you post, search up and what you view can be found by anyone. What scared me the most was hearing that if you were in the background of a photo someone could easily find you by using a facial recognition app. This affects me personally because it's a total invasion of privacy and none of my personal social media activity is private. 

Juan Enriquz’s ted talk was interesting and very easy to understand. He used the Greeks as examples to explain the results on negative effects of social media. For example he used Atalanta and Hippomenes and how they raced each other. Atalanta always won the race against her opponents but got rather distracted when Hippomenes kept rolling gold balls. This was a good example because it shows how we all get so caught up and distracted with social media we tend not to realize the bigger picture and what's actually going on within these media platforms. 

The same concept goes with Catherine Crumps  talk about how fast the police can know information and how they get it. Her whole talk is based around the protest in Ferguson, Missouri and hoe equipment and technology that is supposed to be used on the battlefield is now making its way into the lives of ordinary citizens. 

Today you can’t even drive your car and have privacy. The government has used license plate cameras that take pictures and overall track where you have been, what you are doing, and even who you are with. The sad thing is, is that the government isn't doing anything when it comes to the issue because they are in on it. 

Christopher Sogohoian  gives a TED talk on “How to Avoid Surveillance”. He explains that our telephone networks were first and foremost wired for surveillance. This has turned into a problem because now anyone could be listening in to our phone calls; the government, criminals, hackers, or stalkers. Apple has said that by using iMessage, FaceTime, and WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, has put in strong encryption to make it very hard to wiretap. He makes a point to say that because there is no specific “criminals laptop” or “terrorist laptop” that in order to have surveillance over them, they have to have surveillance on everyone which obviously comes at a cost. 

Lastly, in Darieth Chisolm’s  Ted talk, she talks about how she was a victim of having explicit photos of her posted all over the internet without her consent, known as cyber harassment, but she wants it to be known as digital domestic violence or revenge porn. She explains that there is a major lack of legislation to adequately protect victims and punish perps. The only thing out there right now is fines for the perpetrators. These victims are suffering and it is financially, emotionally, and physically draining to try and fight it in court. 

Overall, these TED talks show how dangerous the internet can be and we have to do everything we can to protect ourselves and everyone around us.