Progress Update- Privacy Policy
So I’ve run into an issue in narrowing my topic. What got me interested in privacy policy was all the publicity over Edward Snowden in this past year. I listened to his interview with NBC and read various articles on the topic. It opened my eyes to how very few laws there are protecting our online information and how these laws are broken all the time with little punishment. Until I researched the topic, I was not aware of any of this so my goal was to advocate stricter privacy laws online. To make this topic more relevant to my classmates, I wanted to gear my website towards college students. After all, we are online more than any other age group. Of course, we all know we shouldn’t be posting pictures of alcohol or posting statuses that imply illegal activity online. But I wanted to go beyond that. What happens in 15 years when your are running for office and your opponent leaks a nude you sent to your significant other back in college? Or gets access to your medical records, because they are all on computers now, and discover that you were treated for a mental illness? There are thousands of scenarios, some in our control and some not. My overall goal is to inform my peers on the lack of regulation online and the trouble it could mean for our futures. I’m not sure if all I am encompassing is too broad, but hopefully it will all blend together smoothly.
This private policy issue is a very good topic for this generation. We are the first generation that has been online or mostly online for the majority of our lives. In 60 years from now, our grandchildren might have the opportunity to creep on our Facebook or twitter. That is something very weird to think about. Yet at the same time, it is very cool. I would love to see how my grandparents acted when they were in college. But like you said, we (college students) need to be very careful what we put online. This goes for all media types ranging from Twitter to Snapchat. Due to this increase in social media, out future president is probably on Facebook and Twitter now. I guess we just need to be smart what we put online or else it could backfire 20 years from now.
I think its great that you’re researching this further – you are right in that we are the generation who interacts online more than any other age group, and while it is effective and has become a constant aspect of our lives, we are not often warned of the impact that our current online activity can have on our futures. Abandoning the internet is not really an option, but knowing what can or cannot follow us forever in cyberspace is something many people would wish to know.
I think that the amount of information you are trying to encompass is great. I feel that if you leave out parts you mentioned covering that you will lose important information on the issue. It can be extremely scary to know that things we post online in Facebook and Twitter can never really be erased again. Even if you try to take something down chances are another person has saved it to their own computer or it has been involuntarily stored in some other location. College students need to be aware of all of this so they can think twice before posting things. It is also troubling to learn that you said there is a lack of regulation on internet privacy. Who’s to say there isn’t some person who has a computer program set up that automatically saves and records all kinds of information posted online. Something definitely needs to be done as far as improving internet security policies and protecting our safety online.
I feel that the information you plan on covering is not too broad, it is just right. Recently I sent an embarrassing photo via snap chat of my one friend to another friend. I thought it was just for a second so nobody would ever see it again. Apparently the friend I sent the photo to has a new app which automatically saves every snap chat picture they receive, so the photo I thought was just going to be seen for a second is saved on his phone. I now know better than to send him any embarrassing pictures again. It’s also important that attention is brought to the legal side of the matter. Perhaps if laws were more strict, we wouldn’t have to worry as much about what we put out on the internet coming back to haunt us.