Reflection Tag: The Exploratory essay was very similar to the Annotated Bibliography. It was a very personal essay that you reflected on the sources, why you chose them, how they changed your thinking towards your topic, and if it made you want to explore any topics further. This essay was another step towards setting us up for our research essay’s.
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Olivia-Aman Cotton
ERH-102-06
Mrs. Smith
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Exploratory Essay: Privacy
Do you ever feel like you are being watched? I would tell someone who does they are paranoid, but they just might be on to something. With technology advancing, so is the ability to spy on people, or invade people’s privacy. Being college students, I am sure that most of us have laptops and probably most have laptops with cameras already built in. How would it make you feel if I said the government has the knowledge to hack into your operating system and turn on your camera and watch you, without your knowledge? It seems like an invasion of privacy to me, but some people do not see it that way. I planned on writing my exploratory essay on why we need more laws protecting people’s privacy, but as I started doing more research it occurred to me that it would be difficult for laws to be made about privacy when no one has defined what privacy is in the digital age. The question I am exploring in this essay is, what is privacy?
My first source is by Joanne Kuzma and is titled “Empirical Study of Privacy Issues among Social Networking Sites”. I started with this source because I think it talks about two of the most important issues of privacy: the fact that no one pays attention to privacy policies and how our privacy is always being invaded without people’s knowledge. This source is a study that was done with 60 online social networks (OSNs). The results of this study found that many people know they are giving up some privacy and forty-five percent do not even take the time to read the policy. Different Social Networks offer different types of privacy, but people don’t take advantage of this privacy was also mentioned. Something very important that was discussed was metadata collection. It referred specifically to cookies, which is a software that is tracking the number of times someone visits a website, what websites they are visiting, noting any patterns, and recording what they are buying. This information can then be sent to third parties and it can be used for targeted advertisement, or if it falls in the wrong hands can lead to things like credit card theft and identity theft. This source was extremely enlightening to how many people do not even pay attention to privacy policies. If people aren’t concerned about their own privacy, how can anyone expect the government to be worried about making changes to protect people’s privacy? I think that I need to look more into the metadata issue and cookies to really understand it. It seems like a very scary concept that someone is literally tracking our every move even if it is just little things, such as how many times I check my E-mail a day.
My second source is by Mehmet Erkan YUKSEL, Asim Sinan YUKSEL, and Abdul Halim ZAIM. The article is titled “A Reputation-based Privacy Management System for Social Networking Sites. I picked this source because it discusses the digital footprint we leave anytime something enters the Internet and people loosing control over something once they post it. The source discusses how once you post something online it can never truly be deleted. Also, once you post you lose a lot of control over what happens to it, people will share your posts with their friends, people might screenshot it, and in the most extreme cases it could be used for identity theft. In many cases people’s reputations are hurt when they post or say something online that they expect to be private and it ends up being publicized. I agree with everything in this source. It makes me realize two things: because you can never erase something put on the Internet it is important to be cautious with everything that is posted. Also, I think it is a huge invasion of privacy if you send someone a private message and they end up publicizing it, or someone in an authoritative position gets control of it. Something I might want to look into is what are the laws and regulations when it comes to government figures acquiring people’s online material. Also, what are the cyber bullying policies when it comes to privacy.
My third source is by Robert Richards and is titled “Compulsory Process in Cyberspace: Rethinking Privacy in the Social Networking Age”. I picked this article because it brings the constitution into the picture. This article mentions privacy in terms of the first amendment and freedom of speech and how it needs to be protected. It discusses how people are free to say whatever they want as long as it is not harmful to anyone. The government also, is not the deterrent of what is a threat, or harmful and social networks need to protect users privacy in that way. Two important examples this article gives is Twitter denying the police the right to access one of its users profile because they believe they guy was threatening the police, when he was just exercising his right to freedom of speech. The second example was regarding the Trayvon Martin and Zimmerman case and brought to light the huge concern for privacy even after death and how that should be respected. I am really glad that Twitter denied the Police the right to look through the person’s profile. I think it is a good example of privacy being protected, however, I know this is often not the case. I think I might want to look into cases where the government harassed someone via social media to prove why this form of privacy is so important.
My fourth source is by Joshua Greenberg and is titled, “The privacy-proof Plaintiff: But First, Let Me Share Your #selfie”. I picked this article because it discusses how you can sacrifice your own right to privacy. This article discusses self-exposure and anytime you post something of yourself that is harmful, or used against you, you sacrificed your right to privacy when posting it. However, if someone else post something unauthorized picture, video, or word posting and it is harmful this is an invasion of privacy and can be a legal matter. In many cases, people just follow an unspoken code of privacy and just un-tag themselves from something or remove a post from their page if they do not want it there. I would have to disagree that there is really a code. People post things without permission on the daily, and some sights it is not that easy to un-tag or remove something that you didn’t post, because it almost there right to have it on their page. I think self-exposure is an interesting concept I never thought that anytime I post something I am sacrificing my right to privacy. I think that for my research essay I could explore the idea of self-exposure and privacy more because this is a very different aspect of maintaining one’s privacy.
My fifth source is Peter Baumhart and is titled, “ Social Media and the Job Market: How to reconcile Applicant Privacy with Employer Needs”. I picked this article because it present a new privacy issues that has not even been legally discussed yet. This article discusses how the job market is so tight that employers can be picky. Now employers are using social media as a deciding factor for their employees and requesting usernames and passwords from their potential and current employees. Because there are no laws against it, companies are allowed to do this, however, everyone is aware it raises a big red flag for invasion of privacy. I think this is insane. I do not think that I would want to work for a boss that was requesting such info, so I would not give it to my employer. I am hoping that this issue is evaluated right away, because it is a huge invasion of privacy and everyone should have the right to security of his or her own username and password information. I could investigate this case further, or I could look at more issues that have been brought to surface with the advancement of technology for my research paper.
Currently, I am thinking that I don’t know nearly enough about privacy. I feel like it is hard to take a stance on the issue because it is so complex. There are many different forms of privacy so I am not sure that one definition of privacy will ever suffice. I think that there might need to be multiple definitions for different solutions. Originally, I wanted to find a solution to the privacy problem, but it is far more complex then I thought and I don’t think that I am going to be able to come up with a solution. I think I am going to have to do more research about privacy before I can really come up with a thesis for my research paper. I do know for a fact that I believe we need more acts toward preserving privacy.
Works Cited
Baumhart, Peter B. “Social Media and the Job Market: How to Reconcile Applicant Privacy with Employer Needs.” University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform 48.2 (2015): 503-33. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.
Greenberg, Joshua M. “The Privacy-proof Plaintiff: But First, Let Me Share Your #selfie.” Journal of Law & Policy 23.2 (2015): 689-740. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.
Kuzma, Joanne. “Empirical Study of Privacy Issues among Social Networking Sites.” Journal of International Commercial Law & Technology 6.2 (2011): 74-85. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.
Richards, Robert D. “Compulsory Process in Cyberspace: Rethinking Privacy in the Social Networking Age.” Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy 36.2 (2013): 519-48. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Feb. 2016.
YÜKSEL, Mehmet Erkan, Asİm Sinan YÜKSEL, and Abdül Halim ZAİM. “A Reputation-based Privacy Management System for Social Networking Sites.” Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences 21.3 (2013): 766-84. Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.