| |
| META TOPICPARENT | name="FirstEssay" |
|---|
|
|
<
< | A Growing Need to Protect Privacy in an Era of Growing Willingness to Give it Up |
>
> | A Growing Need to Protect Privacy in an Era of Growing Willingness to Give it Up (Second Draft) |
| | |
|
>
> | -- By RochishaTogare - 09 Jan 2021 |
| | The Advent of Privacy Challenges |
|
<
< | Those of us born in the 90s remember the in-between; the shift of people carrying cellphones, to people carrying cellphones that could connect to the internet. Of one being able to use a bulky computer in a stationary place, to carrying around a laptop that let us take our work anywhere. To the only “social” being face-to-face meetings, to social being a word that finds its place before “media.”
We look at our current debates with privacy and think, “this is because of the internet revolution.” But in fact, right to privacy is alluded to from the very advent of our nation.
"Alluded to" is precisely what it is not.
The U.S. Constitution, as interpreted by the Supreme Court, recognizes a right to privacy in multiple amendments. Further, the first article addressing the privacy was by Justice Louis Brandeis in his 1890 Harvard Law Review article, stemming from the advent of photography and newspaper invasion into individuals’ homes. 1948 Saw the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights address privacy, and soon after in 1960, legal Scholar William Prosser “outlined four torts that would allow someone whose privacy was violated…to sue the perpetrator for damages.” (1) |
>
> | Those of us born in the 90s remember the in-between; the shift of people carrying cellphones, to people carrying cellphones that could connect to the internet. Of once being able to use a bulky computer in a stationary place, to carrying around a laptop that let us take our work anywhere. To the only “social” being face-to-face meetings, to social being a word that finds its place before “media.” |
| | |
|
>
> | We look at our current debates with privacy and think, “this is because of the internet revolution.” |
| | |
|
>
> | The first article addressing privacy was by Justice Louis Brandeis in his 1890 Harvard Law Review article, stemming from the advent of photography and newspaper invasion into individuals’ homes. 1948 Saw the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights address privacy, and soon after in 1960, legal Scholar William Prosser “outlined four torts that would allow someone whose privacy was violated…to sue the perpetrator for damages.” |
| | The Modern Issues
In the past, such concerns were largely driven by individuals not having control over the actions of others—of the press taking photos, of the government invading their homes. However, in today’s age the concern is individuals’ own ignorance or willingness to forgo privacy for service. In an era of programmatic, targeted advertising, it’s easy to give up our names, ages, emails, and phone numbers, for the convenience and range of services that make life easier, often with the added allure of such services being free. |
|
<
< | Earlier this month, former Facebook employee France Haugen released files revealing the results of the company’s internal research results regarding the impact of Instagram on teenage girls. A key statistic that has been highlighted in the media is that “32 perfect of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse” (2). One solution addresses that children under thirteen aren’t even supposed to be making accounts, because data collection on children under that age goes against our country’s privacy laws. Yet, I know many of my classmates signed up for Facebook before they were thirteen with fake birthdays. Facebook also mentioned a potential to create “Instagram Kids.”
From all our constitutional history to here? That's wildly out of scale.
Similarly, humans invariably offer up their data.
What humans? I am human, and I certainly don't. I( have known all sorts of humans who didn't, in every society in which I have been over the last seven decades. Perhaps some other idea is the one you meant to express, but this seems flatly wrong to me.
Sometimes due simply to being unaware of what they’re revealing by doing so (as with the military base that was revealed when soldiers decided to compete with each other, uploading their fitness tracker data in the process and creating a map of their exercise route). In other ways, we do so for convenience, as with the FreeStyle? Libre sensors that have been using AI to recommend personalized diets based on individual’s glucose levels (4). |
>
> | Earlier this month, former Facebook employee France Haugen released files revealing the results of the company’s internal research results regarding the impact of Instagram on teenage girls. A key statistic that has been highlighted in the media is that “32 perfect of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse”. One solution addresses that children under thirteen aren’t even supposed to be making accounts, because data collection on children under that age goes against our country’s privacy laws. Yet, I know many of my classmates signed up for Facebook before they were thirteen with fake birthdays. Facebook also mentioned a potential to create “Instagram Kids.” |
| | |
|
>
> | Similarly, humans nowadays see their data taken without their consent. Think of how Google Maps is created by taking visual imagery of streets, or how someone filming a school event might take video of people without their express agreement. In America law allow for such photography in public places. In Japan, it is considered taboo to take photos of others without consent (face blurring is recommended), but it is not a matter of clear law as it stands. |
| | |
|
>
> | That said, sometimes individuals also actively engage in technologies without considering the outcomes of their actions, often due simply to being unaware of what they’re revealing by doing so. This was illustrated with the military base that was revealed when soldiers decided to compete with each other, uploading their fitness tracker data in the process and creating a map of their exercise route. |
| | Attempts at Solving The Issue |
|
<
< | Apple created a lot of buzz (and some very creative advertising campaigns) when they released a pop-up window that notifies users that an app is tracking their data, allowing users to prevent the app from doing so. (3) Many small businesses and apps were upset by the change, arguing that this was how they allowed users to access their services for free. Facebook responded saying that it was attempting to create a method of advertising that doesn’t rely on user data (3). But is it really that easy to dismantle a $350 billion digital industry? These companies have different views of how much they should roll back such advertising.
While BigTech? attempts to revamp their own privacy systems, can and should users do more to take privacy into their own hands? I’m positive that many people would rather use an app for free than pay to remove advertising (as evidences by the numerous app-store complaints when apps roll out pay-for-no-ads versions of their products). There has been a growing industry of products that market themselves as shirking ads (for example Brave, the private web browser), but how many people choose to use this service?
Furthermore, what is the state of media literacy in our country? One of the first ways we can protect young children who will undeniably sign up for these enticing social media services is to inform them about what they give up in exchange for access to endless streams of videos, 150-word posts, and their friends’ photos.
In the long run, I would argue that this education is a must if we’re to convince people to pay for subscription fees in lieu of paying for such services with their data.
Education is always a must. We always educate. But that's not quite enough.
This draft did the work of a first draft: it cleared away the brush. Now you are ready to write the second draft from the question posed at the end of this one.
(1) https://safecomputing.umich.edu/privacy/history-of-privacy-timeline
(2) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/13/parenting/instagram-teen-girls-body-image.html
(3) https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/16/technology/digital-privacy.html |
>
> | Apple created a lot of buzz (and some very creative advertising campaigns) when they released a pop-up window that notifies users that an app is tracking their data, allowing users to prevent the app from doing so. Many small businesses and apps were upset by the change, arguing that this was how they allowed users to access their services for free. Facebook responded saying that it was attempting to create a method of advertising that doesn’t rely on user data. But is it really that easy to dismantle a $350 billion digital industry? These companies have different views of how much they should roll back such advertising. |
| | |
|
<
< | (4) https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/oct/05/intimate-data-can-a-person-who-tracks-their-steps-sleep-and-food-ever-truly-be-free |
>
> | While BigTech? attempts to revamp their own privacy systems, can and should users do more to take privacy into their own hands? I’m positive that many people would rather use an app for free than pay to remove advertising (as evidenced by the numerous app-store complaints when apps roll out pay-for-no-ads versions of their products). There has been a growing industry of products that market themselves as shirking ads (for example Brave, the private web browser), but how many people choose to use this service? |
| | |
|
>
> | Maybe We Should Start by Educating Better |
| | |
|
<
< |
These could just be links in the text. You're writing for the web, so make it easy for the reader to find what you're relying on with a click.
|
>
> | With the boom of technology, just what is the state of media literacy in our country? One of the first ways we can protect young children who will undeniably sign up for these enticing social media services is to inform them about what they give up in exchange for access to endless streams of videos, 150-word posts, and their friends’ photos. This is not simply to say "watch out, technology tracks you" but rather to offer solutions to students who don't want to participate in social media. |
| | |
|
>
> | Nowadays to get hired, we're told we need a LinkedIn? , to participate in online classes, we're told we need Zoom and Coursework, we're told to be a "member of society" we need to be social online. Why does that have to be the norm? People are considered suspicious now if they can't be found online, instead of taking into consideration that they simply don't want to be in the hands of data miners and advertiser. A person should not be deemed "antisocial" because they prefer to engage with people offline. |
| | |
|
>
> | First and foremost, we need to make a norm the alternatives to practices that steal our data, and create education surrounding options to engage with technology without giving up our privacy for those who still want to use technology. We can similarly make platforms more liable for the measures they take to thwart privacy to build their own banks, and place greater burden on them to educate their users instead of hiding their practices in fine print that the average person reading might not even understand. |
| |
\ No newline at end of file |