Google's Invasion Of Privacy

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Recommended: Decline of privacy

The unlimited accessibility that the Internet offers has made modern society unaware of the invasion of private information and data. The Internet, particularly social media, has complicated the notion of private territory in the digital world due to its “non-existent” physical space. Most digital users don’t acknowledge Google and any other search engine as a proprietary environment. As a private-owned company Google has ability to store and utilize users’ personal information for their personal interest.
Due to the vast growth of the Internet and social media in the past decades, the value of privacy has been replaced by digital data and information. In order to overcome the invasion of privacy by surveillance capitalist, responsibility …show more content…

We might not realize, but Google perhaps knows what is our favorite food and Facebook surely does know who our secret admirer is. Having the Internet monitor our personal information is like having someone read our personal diary. The Internet is taking our personal data through what Shoshana Zuboff called “data exhaust”, a user-generated data that collected from our online engagement as an internet user. Zuboff explains these collective data consist of, “….everything from Facebook likes Google searches to tweets, emails, texts, photos, songs, and videos, location and movement, purchases, every click, misspelled word, every page view, and more .” Moreover, we let the digital corporates step into our personal lives regardless with or without our consent. It is important to distinguish what is private and what is public in the digital world to overcome this surveillance practice in the …show more content…

In her article, media and culture scholar Julie Frechette states that these Internet blocking-content services are constructed by financial and political motives from the corporations, the government, and the private computer companies . Furthermore, Frechette argues that, “…such a discursive trend manufactures consent through a hegemonic force that overlooks the invasion of advertising or marketing strategies targeted at young people online .” Similarly to Zuboff, Frechette touches up on how private tech companies misuse its users’ private matter and turn it into their profit. For example, AOL provides its users with kids-oriented Internet program called “Kids Only”. The particular program allows parents to control and manage what kind of information and content in the Internet. While serving as edutainment resources to children, “Kids Only” also advertised its AOL@School service excessively in order to obtain more profit . With the advancement of the Internet and its presence in our everyday lives, advertisers are getting more inclined in marketing its products and services as often as

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