Section two (130-278) of the reading for “Terms of Service” touches on the subject of surveillance and the reputation that people obtain online.
In the chapter titled “To Watch and Be Watched,” Silverman talks about social media being an environment for surveillance for corporations and government agency. This created a culture in were being watched is the new normal practice; however, Silverman explains the fact that people watching others without their knowledge is a scary thought. For example, Silverman says, “Over the last decade, the U.S. government has, by law and by policy, granted itself massive electronic surveillance capabilities” (130). This quote is kind of scary, many people know that there is always someone looking to do harm
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Throughout the chapter, Silverman used Uber and OkCupid as an example for how reviews can impact a person’s reputation. He talks about the review scale that many sites use to rate members such as, the star scale, thumps up or down scale, and 1-10 rating can give a person a bad reputation. For example, if you take an Uber and do not like the service the driver provide then you can give them a low rating on the site to tell others about your experience. This could lead to the driver not being about to get any work and lose their job due to the review. However, how can a person who has no experience critiquing have a valid opinion? Why do they have such a big voice online? Silverman would go on to say “The result of all this reviewing has been the atrophying of the critical culture, with professional critics seen as dispensable, nothing more than recommendation engines who can be replaced with algorithms and free, crowdsourced reviews” (189). This quote really got to me because why would I personally take advice from a person that is not known or has the experience to back up their calm. Social media made way too easy for anyone to have an opinion about other people without any fallout. I personally would not follow the advice from a person that has no knowledge about the product or
As people grow older their view of the world changes; the innocence that they once approached life with fades and reality sets in. “The Watcher” by Guy Vanderhaeghe tells the storey of Charlie a young boy who is removed from his sheltered home and must open his eyes to harsh world that surrounds him. Charlie suffered from frequent illness at home, giving him the freedom to watch adults function in their daily lives though never truly grasping the events being played out in front of him. When Charlie’s mother Mable becomes ill herself, Charlie is sent to Grandma Bradley’s farm for the summer. Shortly after Charlie settles in at the farm his aunt Evelyn arrives with her boyfriend Thompson hoping that Grandma Bradley will resolve her problems. Grandma Bradley cares for her daughter but not Thompson. She is willing to do whatever it takes to get him out of her house. By the end Grandma succeeds in removing Thompson from her home, with help from the Ogden brothers, liberating Evelyn and showing Charlie that life is not always as simple as it seems. Tracking the food imagery within the locations of the text highlights the intricacies involved in relationships as well as Charlie’s realization that the world is an unsympathetic place, as he struggles to find balance between childhood and adulthood.
There is considerable utilitarian value in extending privacy rights to the Internet. The fear that communication is being monitored by a third party inevitably leads to inefficiency, because individuals feel a need to find loopholes in the surveillance. For instance, if the public does not feel comfortable with communica...
Richards, Neil M. "The Dangers Of Surveillance." Harvard Law Review 126.7 (2013): 1934-1965. Academic Search Elite. Web. 8 Feb. 2014.
“Human beings are not meant to lose their anonymity and privacy,” Sarah Chalke. When using the web, web users’ information tend to be easily accessible to government officials or hackers. In Nicholas Carr’s “Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty,” Jim Harpers’ “Web Users Get As Much As They Give,” and Lori Andrews “Facebook is Using You” the topic of internet tracking stirred up many mixed views; however, some form of compromise can be reached on this issue, laws that enforces companies to inform the public on what personal information is being taken, creating advisements on social media about how web users can be more cautious to what kind of information they give out online, enabling your privacy settings and programs, eliminating weblining,
“You have nothing to fear, if you have nothing to hide.” This phrase was first introduced in George Orwell’s novel 1984, where Orwell created a dictatorial government that addressed itself as “Big Brother”, a sort of benevolent nickname for the higher powers that actually watched over it’s citizens obsessively, and managed their behavior like an eye in the sky. The phrase has also been used in British closed-circuit television (otherwise known simply as video surveillance), which was used experimentally during the 1970’s. During that time period, citizens rebelled against the higher-power that had assumed the right to sift through personal information for the sake of monitoring individuals. New-age technology has herded first-world citizens to document their lives for the public, using methods such as “Tweeting”, “Snapchatting”, and “Facebooking”.
Part of the allure of the Internet has always been the anonymity it offers its users. As the Internet has grown however, causing capitalists and governments to enter the picture, the old rules are changing fast. E-commerce firms employ the latest technologies to track minute details on customer behavior. The FBI's Carnivore email-tracking system is being increasingly used to infringe on the privacy of netizens. Corporations now monitor their employees' web and email usage. In addition to these privacy infringements, Internet users are also having their use censored, as governments, corporations, and other institutions block access to certain sites. However, as technology can be used to wage war on personal freedoms, it can also be employed in the fight against censorship and invasion of privacy.
Solove, Daniel J. “5 Myths about Privacy” Washington Post: B3. Jun 16 2013. SIRS. Web. 10
In the novel 1984, the characters are always being watched. They feel as if there is no benefit to being watched, especially when they get arrested for things they say. Technology is at the point where, “Who controls the present controls the past” (Orwell
The world erupted in outrage following revelations by Edward Snowden regarding the extent of surveillance perform by the National Security Agency. Privacy becomes one of the hottest topic of 2013 and was chosen by the world’s most popular online dictionary, Dictionary.com, as the Word of the Year. However, the government is not the only one that conduct data gathering and surveillance. Employers often monitor their employees, and businesses collect data on theirs customer. The morality of these practices is a topic that generates heated debate.
Privacy is not just a fundamental right, it is also important to maintain a truly democratic society where all citizens are able to exist with relative comfort. Therefore, “[Monitoring citizens without their knowledge] is a major threat to democracies all around the world.” (William Binney.) This is a logical opinion because without freedom of expression and privacy, every dictatorship in history has implemented some form of surveillance upon its citizens as a method of control.
However, government agencies, especially in America, continue to lobby for increased surveillance capabilities, particularly as technologies change and move in the direction of social media. Communications surveillance has extended to Internet and digital communications. law enforcement agencies, like the NSA, have required internet providers and telecommunications companies to monitor users’ traffic. Many of these activities are performed under ambiguous legal basis and remain unknown to the general public, although the media’s recent preoccupation with these surveillance and privacy issues is a setting a trending agenda.
Papacharissi, Zizi, and Jan Fernback. "Online Privacy And Consumer Protection: An Analysis Of Portal Privacy Statements." Journal Of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 49.3 (2005): 259-281. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
In the modern day era, we find in society a ubiquitous usage of technology that seems to be never ending and forever growing. Included with this notion, the broad subject of surveillance is of course included. Contemporary surveillance, or more specifically technological surveillance, has been described as ambiguous; meaning that it is often misunderstood or open to different interpretations. The representation of surveillance within popular culture has played an impacting role on how we as a society perceive it and this raises certain questions that may reflect back on to society. The 1998 film Enemy Of The State directed by Tony Scott, Starring Will Smith, Gene Hackman and Jon Voight is considered to be a ‘spy-thriller’ blockbuster. Its central themes explore a range of surveillance techniques and equipment and also provides some insights, no matter how realistic or unrealistic they may be, into the real life security organisation; The National Security Agency (NSA). Using this film as an example and analysing how these themes are represented will hopefully allow us to key these ideas back to modern surveillance theories and practices.
Abstract: This article focuses on the areas of anonymity in cyberspace, as to why people prefer anonymity and how it affects their behaviour when they’re online. Also highlighted are the certain aspects of social behaviour that are a byproduct anonymity because of which people gain a certain form of freedom of speech upon masking their identity, and how this brings out both socially desirable and undesirable outcomes. Also discussed is why authorities and certain organizations prove to be a threat to the future of anonymity.
Privacy is the condition where someone personal information can not be documented and be used by others (Parent, 1983). Privacy has been and continues to be a significant issue of concern for both current and prospective electronic commerce customers. The foll...