Privacy, On & Offline

Watching these four videos shows how concerned we all should be for our privacy, both on and offline. The videos revealed how things as simple as phone calls, text messages, and even places you drive to are accessed by the government. The constant surveillance from the government and the usage of people's online information by large cooperations is something that negatively impacts everyone's privacy, which should not be allowed. 

This is an issue that causes harm to myself, and everyone else. We all have digital footprints online, which we now know are all being watched by the government. As a person who grew up using different kinds of social media, this heavily impacts me and all of my friends and family who use it as well. This was discussed in the TED Talk done by Juan Enriquez, where he talks about how we all have "electronic tattoos" online. He uses the term as an expression to say how your presence online is the same as having a tattoo on your body, or in other words, that your online presence is permanent. It's important for us to remember this, because the more personal information we put on the internet, the less privacy we will have. Anything we post about ourselves will be out there forever, whether we delete it from our profiles or not. Though the government doesn't just track our online presence, but also our texts and phone calls. In the TED Talk done by Christopher Soghoian, he discusses the way the government taps into our phones through wiretapping to look at our phones. This means that everyone, including myself and my loved ones, are having out private conversations watched everyday by the government, which they have no business in listening to. I find it really shocking that this kind of invasive surveillance is allowed to take place, when the line between safety and invasion of privacy has been crossed. 

In my opinion, I think the government should put heavier regulations on the amount of information they are given access to. As of right now, there are clearly not enough laws in place to protect our privacy, since we are being watched to such an extent that even our personal conversations are being listened to. It's at a point where our information and online presence are also being used to harm people, which was discussed in Darieth Chisolm's TED Talk about how revenge porn is done as a way of hurting others online. Laws against revenge porn have only came about in recent years, which shows how further changes need to be made to stop the numerous ways our information can be used against us. 

People are aware of the dangers this kind of surveillance has on our privacy, which is why there are now multiple ways for people to protect themselves from these invasions of privacy. Many people install VPNs to their electronic devices, which is an encryption service that blocks their internet activity from being seen by outside parties. This helps us feel more secure in our internet history being private, without the government being able to watch whenever they please. We also now know that we have to be careful with what we decide to put online so that information which is more personal does not fall into the wrong hands.

EOTO #2: The Five Eyes Alliance

The Five Eyes Alliance (or FVEY) is an intelligence alliance between five countries; the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Through this alliance, each country shares their resources and intelligence through their security agencies in order to keep their countries safe from potential threats. The purpose of Five Eyes is to prevent national security threats by aiding each other with intelligence and, in more recent times, cyber security. 

The alliance began in 1946 following World War II, when the UKUSA agreement was formed with the promise of sharing intelligence on post war threats. Canada later joined the alliance in 1948, followed by Australia and New Zealand in 1956. By the time all five countries were in the alliance, they used the majority of their resources to focus on the Cold War by combining their intelligence to aid the United States. However as time went on, their attention shifted towards combating terrorism and technological threats in order to keep their countries safe. Events that the alliance maintained surveillance on included the War on Terror, and their conflict with China in 2018. 

Initially the Five Eyes alliance was top secret, with the nature of the agreement being heavily classified for many years. That is until the details of the original UKUSA agreement were finally disclosed to the public in 2010, which showed how the two countries would share a global network of "listening posts" through their security agencies. Naturally, this later extended to the other three countries who would later join the alliance. 

While Five Eyes does keep us safe from threats, it also has it's downsides in terms of our personal privacy. When the full extent of the data being used was revealed to the public in 2013, it was discovered that the surveillance used is far more invasive of people's privacy than we initially thought. Simple online interactions such as phone calls, emails, internet history, and other kinds of online usage are all heavily tracked by these security agencies, which gives us nearly no privacy online. This also extends to any personal information a person has online, meaning that all online information is tracked, and can potentially be used in a harmful manner. 

The government having constant surveillance on people's everyday lives causes an ethical issue to rise, as the line between maintaining national security and respecting people's privacy becomes blurred by the practices used to gather information. 

The Eight Values of Free Expression

There are eight values of free expression that help us understand why freedom of speech, and the first amendment, are so important in America. These values show how vital it is for a country to allow its citizens to have the freedom to state their own opinions without fear of government interference or punishment. Every one of these theories applies to our society today, with each one explaining different aspects of life and how they contribute to free expression. However, there are two in particular that I feel are the most important. 

Individual Self Fulfillment

If I had to choose one of the eight theories that I feel is the most important to me, I would choose individual self fulfillment, also known as self-actualization. This theory, created by C. Edwin Baker, states that free speech allows people to truly express themselves and form their own identity, which to me is truly beautiful. In my opinion, one of the most incredible feelings is when you are truly able to be yourself without being afraid of consequence. It helps people feel more secure in themselves, and gives them a voice that they know won't be silenced. When we have the freedom to express ourselves, we also feel more confident in ourselves and our abilities, giving us more motivation to be successful in life. Even in the Supreme Court, the following was said about this theory during Stanley vs. Georgia, the "right to think is the beginning of freedom," and "speech is the beginning of thought."

Marketplace of Ideas

Another on the eight theories that I feel are most important is the marketplace of ideas, first mentioned by historian John Milton. The theory states that when the truth and false information are able to conflict, truth will eventually win over the falsehood. This is definitely important when it comes to free expression, as the freedom to tell the truth without fear will ultimately have positive outcomes on the world around us. I have had multiple experiences in my life where this theory applied, with the truth always coming out in the end, even when the falsehood originally had consequences against others. 

EOTO1: The History of the Telephone

The history of the telephone dates back to the 1800s, where many inventors were trying to successfully create an invention that allows for wired communication. However it was inventor Alexander Graham Bell who created the first telephone in 1876. The telephone transmitted sound through electrical wires, with the first words spoken over the telephone being “Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you.” This was revolutionary for the time, though it wasn’t able to have exchanges from other areas. This didn’t happen until 1878, when the first telephone line was created in order to call people in local areas. Within just three years, there were around 49,000 telephones being used across the United States. In 1880, the first telephone company was created by Bell, named the American Telegraph and Telephone Company (otherwise known as AT&T). This was the company that would dominate telephone communications for the next century. They made further advancements to the telephone, creating dial telephones in 1891 which allows callers to directly dial a phone number instead of having to go through an operator. 

The number of telephones continued to rapidly increase over the next few decades, reaching 10 million telephones by 1920. The technology involved in the telephones were also increasing, with the first transatlantic call being made from New York to London in 1927. However, the true groundbreaking moment for the telephone during this time was in 1947, when the first mobile phone was invented by Martin Cooper. While it wasn’t yet commercially available to people, it was still a huge breakthrough in wireless communication technology. It wasn’t until 1973 when mobile phones were made commercially available by the company Motorola. The phones only had a battery life of 20 minutes and weighed about two pounds, but this was still revolutionary in the way we communicate with others. With the quickly growing technological advancements over the next few years resulted in the first smartphone in 1992, which had touch screens, email, and fax capabilities. This is what laid the foundation for the smartphones we now use today.