Privacy on the Internet

Privacy on the Internet is becoming more and more difficult. We're moving away from our real lives and our (somewhat) anonymous on-line lives being separate, and moving towards one non private life that exists in both places. Every game and app wants to sync and post to your Facebook. Facebook removes the feature that can hides you from search. Facebook automatically tags people in your photos. Some technologies like new cameras and smart phones auto detect faces. It will be nearly impossible to stay anonymous on the Internet at all soon enough.

I think privacy on the Internet is important because some people don't want their entire lives made public, but the only way to do so is to allow places like Facebook to display their photos to the entire world. Then there is the issue about privacy invading our rights as Americans. Privacy is now at the forefront of discussions because of the Snowden NSA leaks and wikileaks. I think American citizens knew they were being watched to be protected from potential threats, but I don't think anyone knew it would be this bad.

 

"The National Security Agency collects nearly 200 million text messages per day from around the world as part of a program code named Dishfire, according to a new report based on data leaked by Edward Snowden." 

Dishfire works by gathering text messages from random targets -- meaning it includes innocent people -- each day. 

Rodriguez. January 16, 2014

http://articles.latimes.com/2014/jan/16/business/la-fi-tn-nsa-200-million-text-messages-snowden-leak-20140116