I found this article earlier today through a link on Drudge Report. Pretty interesting in how Facebook is somewhat censoring what content they do allow and what content the don't. It seems that during the Egyptian uprisings we didn't hear about this happening at all but when the Palestinians use social media to organize their people, we see a different outcome.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110329/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_facebook
I would love to hear what you all think about this also.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
March 24 Class Period
When we walked into class today and were given our assignment there was a lot of confusion as to the best way to go about this process. There were so many different ways to go about the assignment so we all through out a few different ideas. After much debate we came to the consensus that the best way to proceed was to spend the first part of class discussing the readings and then we could all blog for the remainder of class. This seemed to be the only way to be able to accomplish this assignment as we quickly figured out how difficult it would be to blog and discuss the readings at the same time. The way I went about it all was taking notes as we discussed the readings and then started my blog post about the reading.
Chapter 6 is about how the government is instilling fear into the citizens which in turn tricks us into giving up our privacy rights. By giving up our privacy rights to the government it allows them to take a closer look into our lives and have tighter surveillance of the American citizenry. This is the first time that the government has done this as we enter our first war that has began during the technological age that we are now in. Because of this, the government adapted new ways to fight the war and this is one of these new strategies.
Chapter 7 takes a look at the new intrinsic ties between politics and surveillance. There has always been a form of surveillance that was used by the government to keep track of the citizenry. However this often created huge problems when this was discovered. A great example of this was when Nixon was busted during his presidency for authorizing the wire-tapping of citizens. This is ironic because when it was discovered that Bush was wiretapping citizens, we turned a blind-eye to this because it was deemed appropriate in the interest of our national security. People have let their guard down when it comes to issues of national security as we discussed as a class when talking about Chapter 6. The government has instilled so much fear in us that we are willing to do so much, and give the government the liberty to do anything that we think may make us safer.
This all begs the question of how ethical this surveillance is? As a citizen are you alright with the governments increase surveillance in the interest of national security (or so as they claim?).
While working on these posts we were joking around about this whole project and said, Do we think Professor Dean is watching us right now as we work together on this project? Is there a hidden camera somewhere that she is watching back in our office? This was a pretty funny joke that we all got a laugh from, but the truth of the matter is that we would never know. You never know and that is the fact of our modern surveillance culture.
Overall, this was a very interesting and for sure different way to go about class. I will admit though, I feel that we do get a lot more accomplished during a regular class when we spend the majority of class discussing the readings. I feel the problem that we encountered today was that it was hard to have a good discussion when the main emphasis of the class was on writing our blogs.
Chapter 6 is about how the government is instilling fear into the citizens which in turn tricks us into giving up our privacy rights. By giving up our privacy rights to the government it allows them to take a closer look into our lives and have tighter surveillance of the American citizenry. This is the first time that the government has done this as we enter our first war that has began during the technological age that we are now in. Because of this, the government adapted new ways to fight the war and this is one of these new strategies.
Chapter 7 takes a look at the new intrinsic ties between politics and surveillance. There has always been a form of surveillance that was used by the government to keep track of the citizenry. However this often created huge problems when this was discovered. A great example of this was when Nixon was busted during his presidency for authorizing the wire-tapping of citizens. This is ironic because when it was discovered that Bush was wiretapping citizens, we turned a blind-eye to this because it was deemed appropriate in the interest of our national security. People have let their guard down when it comes to issues of national security as we discussed as a class when talking about Chapter 6. The government has instilled so much fear in us that we are willing to do so much, and give the government the liberty to do anything that we think may make us safer.
This all begs the question of how ethical this surveillance is? As a citizen are you alright with the governments increase surveillance in the interest of national security (or so as they claim?).
While working on these posts we were joking around about this whole project and said, Do we think Professor Dean is watching us right now as we work together on this project? Is there a hidden camera somewhere that she is watching back in our office? This was a pretty funny joke that we all got a laugh from, but the truth of the matter is that we would never know. You never know and that is the fact of our modern surveillance culture.
Overall, this was a very interesting and for sure different way to go about class. I will admit though, I feel that we do get a lot more accomplished during a regular class when we spend the majority of class discussing the readings. I feel the problem that we encountered today was that it was hard to have a good discussion when the main emphasis of the class was on writing our blogs.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
iSpy Chapters 1 & 2: The Loss of Privacy
As we become more and more dependent on technology and digital networks, we are quickly losing control of our personal privacy. These networks are able to track the websites that we visit and able to record the products that we purchase. Using this information, they are able to suggest advertisements that may be pertinent to us and suggest other products that we may want to by. A great example of this is when you are looking at an item on amazon.com and there is the bar halfway down the page that says "Customers who bought this item also bought...". Companies are working as hard as possible in order to facilitate additional sales and they have found a way to do these through tracking our trends on the internet and our purchases.
All of this informational recording is something that is generally overlooked by most consumers. We often disregard the advertising on the side bar of our webpages and disregard suggestions to buy other products. In essence, we don't realize how we are being tracked. After taking a step back and looking at all of this, I was perplexed by one question that arises from points discussed in the text and preconceptions that I have always had: Are these companies just doing their jobs or are they completely invading our privacy?
I truly have no answer to that question because I see it from both angles. These companies are doing their jobs after all because they are figuring out what we the consumers want and desire and trying to make it easier for us to access said goods. There are no online regulations that prevent them from doing what they are doing. At the same time this is a complete invasion of our privacy. When the internet came out, it was said that it was beneficial to users who wanted to be able to shop in the privacy of their own homes. This is hardly the case because you really aren't getting any privacy at all. The information is received and spit back out by the sites that you are visiting and purchasing from. Any sense of privacy thus is completely dissolved.
I obviously don't have the answer to this question but would love to hear everyone else's opinion as it comes to this question because this is undoubtedly a debate that will continue to rage on as we become more and more plugged in.
All of this informational recording is something that is generally overlooked by most consumers. We often disregard the advertising on the side bar of our webpages and disregard suggestions to buy other products. In essence, we don't realize how we are being tracked. After taking a step back and looking at all of this, I was perplexed by one question that arises from points discussed in the text and preconceptions that I have always had: Are these companies just doing their jobs or are they completely invading our privacy?
I truly have no answer to that question because I see it from both angles. These companies are doing their jobs after all because they are figuring out what we the consumers want and desire and trying to make it easier for us to access said goods. There are no online regulations that prevent them from doing what they are doing. At the same time this is a complete invasion of our privacy. When the internet came out, it was said that it was beneficial to users who wanted to be able to shop in the privacy of their own homes. This is hardly the case because you really aren't getting any privacy at all. The information is received and spit back out by the sites that you are visiting and purchasing from. Any sense of privacy thus is completely dissolved.
I obviously don't have the answer to this question but would love to hear everyone else's opinion as it comes to this question because this is undoubtedly a debate that will continue to rage on as we become more and more plugged in.
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