Don't Let Your Guard Down

To round out this blog, the final post will be about privacy. Privacy is something that we take for granted, but many big companies are taking advantage of this general way of thinking. Facebook, for one, is a large name that has been caught doing some very unethical actions, including selling private information from its users to third parties as described by CBS news. 

The information they're selling is not just demographical either; it includes your behavior and habits as well. Under the guise of "targeted advertising" Facebook continues to defend itself from these claims.

Privacy is something that we assume is high priority, but in fact is is lowest on the scale. Almost anything can be monitored, from bluetooth devices, speakers, phone calls, emails, virtual assistants such as Alexa and Siri, basically anything you do that uses technology. This TED talk video shows just how dangerous bluetooth devices are, allowing predators the opportunity to hack into children's toys and take advantage of their young minds. 

Despite all of these privacy breaches and news headlines about sold information, people still choose to use these social media and internet tool. Why do we do this? This article explains this somewhat, detailing how even though usage of the app has gone down in terms of likes, posts, and shares, the amount of new accounts being made stays steady. 

Privacy should be a fundamental right we have on the internet, but companies are updating their privacy terms without notifying people, and making their terms so long that we just scroll down and check the box to continue using the app. Since these large companies aren't going to change this way of operating, we need to become more aware of what information we put online as well as where, because it very well may come back to haunt us one day.