Blog #8

    These four videos are all about cybersecurity. cybersecurity is a huge issue right now and it has never been more important to protect the few rights online we have left. All of these speakers made excellent points about very important current topics.

    Catherine Crump's TED talk discussed the use of automatic license plate scanners and other technologies to track the location of innocent Americans. These technologies exist to find people who may have been commited of wrongdoing. However, in doing so they end up tracking more innocent people than actual criminals. Some people may dismiss this as a harmless side-effect of tracking criminals. Police have been keeping this information on innocents "in case it is useful later." This is where the problem lies, in the storing of information gethered on people who have done nothing wrong. This is an obvious invasion of American privacy.

    Juan Enriquez's TED talk was about the consequences of a term he called electronic tattoos. He said drew a comparison between online actions that everyone can see and tattoos. Tattoos send messages about a person before they can say a word. So too, do electronic tattoos. One way to guard against this is to never post something you wouldn't want employers in twenty years to see. It doesn't matter if you delete it or if it's on a private story because it will be seen. Juan claims that immortality may not be a good thing. Sure, everyone wants to be remembered, on paper, but sometimes there are things that should just be forgotten. In the age of the internet, this has proven to be impossible.

    Christopher Soghoian's TED talk provided valuable information on which services can and cannot be wiretapped. This was the first piece of information about internet privacy that I actually found comforting. Apparently, it is somewhat difficult to wiretap FaceTime and Apple's Messages. I primarily use these services so this was wonderful news to recieve. 

    Darieth Chisolm's TED talk was about the horrible effects of revenge porn. This woman's life was almost ruined by revenge porn and she is now using her platform to speak out against it as well as raise awareness about the shockingly relaxed laws regarding it. There are barely any laws in our country regarding this all to common act. Punishments that do exist are all miniscule compared to the weight of the crime. Something should be done immediately in the governemnt to combat this.