Privacy, Online and Off

The scariest part isn't what we choose to share; it's what we never realized we were sharing in the first place.

I always thought of a tattoo as something physical and permanent that you consciously choose to display on your body. It never occurred to me that we could have nonphysical tattoos plastered all over every aspect of our lives. 

A picture I post, a reservation I made, my entire Google search history, and any comments I've ever made on social media become part of me... an invisible and intangible string permanently connected to me for not only the rest of my life, but potentially the rest of eternity.

Juan Enriquez's TED Talk, "Your Online Life, Permanent as a Tattoo,"  really slapped me awake to the world we live in. It reiterates that the internet will never forget, no matter how hard we may try to. 

Growing up in a time of fast-paced invention and the expansion of the internet and its capabilities, I was always warned to be conscious and precise about what I posted and what I "allowed" other people to see about me online. What I was never really warned about was how invasive technology itself could be. 

I knew to think twice before posting a picture with someone smoking or drinking in the background or saying something I wouldn't want people to find years later, but I never thought as much about everything happening behind the screen. 

The feeling of always being watched and monitored really starts to set in after hearing Christopher Soghoian's TED Talk about phone surveillance.  

What really shocked me was his explanation of the surveillance capabilities built into our phone networks, meaning calls can potentially be monitored and accessed not only by governments but also by other countries' intelligence agencies, as well as hackers, criminals, and even stalkers who are able to break into the system. 

Soghoian even uses real cases where surveillance systems were compromised, showing that this is not just some unrealistic scenario. 

Something else that stuck with me while watching the TED Talks in class was that this kind of tracking and invasion of privacy does not even require social media. It does not always depend on a picture I post, a comment I make, or information I intentionally share online. It can come from the actual technology sitting in my pocket.

That is the part that I find so crazy. We have become so accustomed to having our phones with us all the time that it is easy to forget just how much technology is packed into something so small. Even when I am not actively using social media, my phone is still connected to networks and capable of communicating information.

 The idea that something I carry around every day can have this much access and capability, and that almost everyone is unaware of it, is nothing short of astonishing.

 

It also makes me think about how much privacy we should realistically expect in a world where technology is becoming integrated with everything that we do. The answer cannot simply be to stop using technology; this is simply unrealistic. 

The answer instead could be creating more laws to protect that privacy and having the government take responsibility to make sure companies and communication systems have strong protections, as well as being transparent about what information is collected and who can access it. 

I also believe that once you are more aware of the lack of privacy we truly have, or the right to privacy that we so easily give away when clicking "I acknowledge", we need to pay more attention to what we are agreeing to and what information we are making available to companies. 

This all feels especially personal to me because I am constantly on Instagram, and my internship involves looking at other people's social media, tracking posts, and paying attention to what people are sharing online. 

I spend time looking at other people's digital footprints without really thinking about the fact that I am creating one of my own at the exact same time. I think that is what changed the way I look at privacy after watching these talks. 

I used to think being careful online mostly meant thinking before I posted. Now I realize there is a whole side of my digital life that exists beyond the things I consciously choose to put out there.

AI Disclosure: AI was not used in the making, writing, or research of this article. Grammarly was used only to check grammar, spelling, and punctuation.