2/24/2017 1 Comment Blog Post #5Within recent times, the US government has been trying to get more of the American people’s information as it deems it necessary for national security. It is weird how they need to get every American Citizen’s information, even information from other citizens in other countries, especially when it comes to wanting access to their text messages. Even though I do agree to some extent, that the government should be aware of what its people are doing, I don’t think it should be to the extent that they are trying to do to. Especially when it comes to wanting access to people’s messages. Messages that are shared between two people should only be known by them, unless they decide to share it with their friends. When it comes to government wanting to also be aware of what the “chisme” is about, then that is something completely different. First, I think it is because the government doesn’t have any reason to want to know what those people are talking about as it is non of their business. In the situation that they do want/need permission, they should ask the user(s) whether they can access this information and what information they are only able to access. After all, you can’t just let the government know everything that you are doing because there are such things that you wouldn’t even let nobody know about, maybe not even family members. This type of social pact should be used in order to make sure that the lines are finely drawn as to what the government is able to access and what it is not able to. These attempt at getting user specific information is something I came across when reading the article “Tech Companies like Gmail, WhatsApp…” as it talks about how the government is now trying to creates rules to include in Section 67C of the Information Technology Act that “will spell out what type of data has to be stored, in which format, and for how long, according to three members of the newly-formed committee. All this is so that law-enforcement agencies can access the information if they need it.” Companies in the United States, such as Google, Facebook, Snapchat, etc., would have to abide by these rules given the fact that they must abide by the laws of the United States. Even though the government will require such a thing, it doesn’t mean that the tech industry will want to follow by their rules, especially since they want to make sure to keep their user’s data private. For instance, WhatsApp promises their user end-to-end encryptions of messages to their clients, which already makes the messages hard to access if you are not the person sending or receiving them. Although there are ways to get around such issues, these protocols were set up in place to make sure that the user’s privacy was kept safe from everyone, including the government. When it comes to something like this, I don’t think that the government has the right to access people’s information, without their consent. At that point, it becomes invasion of privacy which is something that is protected under the government itself. Even if the user’s were to give the government permission to access their data, I don’t agree that government should be aware of what people are doing. Even if it deals with the invasion of privacy or not, it is not a valid reason to invade people’s privacy. Sources: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/ites/tech-companies-like-gmail-whatsapp-may-be-asked-to-store-user-information/articleshow/54839888.cms
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2/10/2017 2 Comments Rogue NationRoque Twitter AccountsRecently within the news, there have been several issues with Trump wanting to sensor out important information regarding climate change. As Trump believes that climate change is not a real even that is occurring around the world, he wants to make sure that the nation is also aware about this. He is capable of doing this by censoring many government agencies that release information regarding climate change. This censorship of information has resulted in the creation of twitter accounts that are similar to actual twitter accounts of government agencies. These twitter accounts are called rogue twitter accounts because they almost have identical symbols to the government agencies they are copying, except for some small changes. Nobody really knows who created these rogue Twitter accounts, but most of them in general have more followers than the actual Twitter agency accounts. These rogue Twitter accounts tend to talk about some of the things that official government agency Twitter accounts are not able to talk about. These accounts have been under debate recently, mainly due to the fact that they are apposing the "rule" of Trump. This results in several groups of people being affected by this which mainly include Twitter, Trump Administration, and mainly people who follow these accounts. These people can range from just people living within the United States or people in other countries, after all, Twitter is open for everyone. The only issue that I think might cause there to be issues might be the fact that the Trump administration is going to try to shut these Twitter pages down. This type of action from the result would result in their being a debate about the topic of the government trying to regulate people’s speech within social media. This will result in a controversial issue that could cause a great amount of chaos internally. This could be as bad or worse than the rights that happened at Berkeley earlier this year in (either late Jan. or early Feb. 2017). I personally think that this is a direct way to appose freedom of speech because the Trump administration is trying to keep us in the dark. People should have the right to know about the things that are happening around them, especially if is something that is going to affect either them or their children. Such things like this should always be open to people so they can be aware of what is happening around them. I think that this is a good way to make sure that people are not kept in the dark about things that are happening around them. Links to helpful pages: www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/01/27/512007632/its-not-just-the-park-service-rogue-federal-twitter-accounts-multiply www.sltrib.com/home/4919308-155/rogue-fed-workers-use-alt-twitter-accounts 2/3/2017 3 Comments Online privacyWe live in a world that is connected to the internet in one way or another. Whether it be through smart phones, computer, or even the latest in wearable technology, everything is either directly or indirectly connected to the internet. With this increase in the use of technology, we begin to encounter issues that generations in the past never did, one being internet privacy. Internet privacy has become a big issue recently in the news as more and more people are worried about the type of information other people can obtain from them. There are companies that actually benefit from people's online information as it is as good as gold. Well known companies include Facebook, Uber, Amazon, etc. Facebook is a social media company that allows users to create accounts for free and provides a platform for people to communicate with the world around them. Facebook is a popular social media platform where is has approximately 1.49 billions accounts. Even with so many accounts, how is Facebook able to keep its services for free? Well, it really isn't free because Facebook sells your data to other companies for profit. According to the website, "The price of free: how Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Google sell you to advertisers" talks about how in Facebook "We collect the content and other information you provide when you use our Services, including when you sign up for an account, create or share, and message or communicate with others. This can include information in or about the content you provide, such as the location of a photo or the date a file was created. We also collect information about how you use our Services, such as the types of content you view or engage with or the frequency and duration of your activities.” This type of information is what Facebook is selling to advertisements companies that target their advertisements to specific users. Some simple examples of this can include a user hovering their mouse over a produce they see on Facebook and the next time they log into another website, they see the same product. Is it a coincidence or not? What about wearable technology? Wearable technology is another device that is collecting information about the user, whether it be something as simple as a Fitbit for measure your heart rate up to the latest smart watches from Apple or Samsung. These wearable devices collect information about the user as well and even though it has the possibility of having a positive impact, many people are worried that the data being collected by these devices will be sold for profit. Knowing the types of advertisements people get just by using the web are bad enough, now image the possibilities that obtaining more personal user data can have. Whether it will create a positive or negative impact is yet to be determined. www.pcworld.com/article/2986988/privacy/the-price-of-free-how-apple-facebook-microsoft-and-google-sell-you-to-advertisers.html |
AuthorHi, my name is Jose Sanchez, but many of my friends tend to call me Pepe. I am a Computer Science major at CSUMB and this is my blog post. Enjoy! :) Archives
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