Privacy Control

Hello all. My name is Krystal Bruyer and I am from a very small town outside of Rochester, NY. I am a junior studying Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR) and I transferred to Cornell from Michigan State University (MSU) after my freshman year. Although MSU had quite the social scene and excellent athletic teams, I do like Cornell a bit more (not to say that Cornell does not also have excellent athletic teams…).

Despite how long the internet has been around, it continues to have some issues. A big one is privacy control. This issue would not fall under one of Wallace’s categories of online spaces since not as many people were aware of the internet’s capabilities when the book was written compared to what people know now and how much accessibility people have now. When people are now able to do internet banking and purchase items online, how do they know that they will not be a victim of identity theft? Their web browser might have the little padlock at the bottom right corner telling them that it is a “secure” website and they might have the newest and best security protection installed on their computer, but how does internet identity theft still happen? How do we keep this from happening? Who should be involved in stopping it? The simple answer would be to have internet companies and credit card companies create more secure websites together. On the other hand, if we make websites too secure, how do we monitor when people are using the internet illegally? People are always exchanging illegal information over the internet and downloading illegal documents that, if caught, can be a serious criminal offense. Should the government or Homeland Security monitor our internet use or does this invade a person’s right to privacy since this is the United States of America? The amount of monitoring that is currently in place and with new laws, for instance, stating that computer repair people must report the owner if illegal files are found, have already put many people behind bars in recent years. Another recent controversy is the start-up of “Google Maps,” putting a high definition camera on every street corner. Soon, anyone will be able to zoom in on a particular street at anytime of the day and see people close-up and everything that is going on in that location at that moment. This could be helpful in monitoring illegal activity but it can also be a serious infringement on privacy. Then again, as long as the camera is located in a public place that every person has the right to access, are “Google Maps” really an issue of privacy?