Privacy Online & Off

Privacy isn't always private when you don't look deeper into it.

Before watching these TED Talks, I did not think much about how my personal information could be collected and stored. Taking a deeper dive into these videos, I learned more about privacy online and offline and how technology can reveal details about our lives in ways many people may not notice.

The videos focused on privacy and how technology is changing the way information about people is collected and stored. After watching them, I was left wondering how much information about ordinary people is being gathered every day.

Flock cameras
have been wrongfully 
used by police.

In the first TED Talk, Catherine Crump discussed how technology originally designed for the military is making its way into local communities. She explained how police departments use license plate readers, now called Flock cameras, are mounted on roads and police cars to capture images of passing vehicles and turn them into readable text.

What stood out to me was how people, even those we believe who protect us, use this technology in terrible ways. They also collect massive amounts of data from people who have done nothing wrong. 

According to the talk, local police departments can keep records for long periods of time, resulting in massive amounts of stored information, but how do we know that the information that is kept is truly kept from individuals who wish to harm us.

The talk also described how the federal government can pull individual data into one large database. Crump questioned why information should be kept when a person has not committed a crime.

People should understand
how to protect their
data and information.

The talk also mentioned cell tower dumps and StingRay technology, which can send tracking signals to identify cell phones inside homes. Other examples were just as concerning. The NYPD reportedly drove police vehicles past mosques to identify who attended. 

This made me think about how these tools, which are used to help people, can be misused. The speaker suggested that information collected about people could potentially be used for blackmail or political advantage.

The second TED Talk, presented by Juan Enriquez, explored the idea that “without words, tattoos really do shout.” He argued that tattoos tell stories and introduced the concept of electronic tattoos.

One idea that stayed with me was that these electronic tattoos could outlive us. He connected this idea to Greek stories such as Sisyphus, Orpheus and Eurydice, Atalanta and Hippomenes, and Narcissus. 

Each story carried a message about consequences, distraction, reflection, or eternity. The reference that struck me most was the warning not to threaten someone with immortality.

I also think about my friends and family. Many of us use technology every day without considering how much information is being recorded and made me realize that information shared online can last much longer than we expect, creating a permanent digital record.

AI Disclaimer: AI was not used in the research and information for this blog post. All information came from notes that I took while watching two TED talk videos about Privacy online and government surveillance. I then prompted Microsoft Copilot Pro to help me shape my notes into a blog post of between 300 and 350 words written in a smooth professional style. I then added links to online sources that the reader could pursue for more information. Finally, I added appropriate images and captions to gelp break up the type and give the post a more professional look.