Blog #5: Privacy, Online and Off

The modern world's technology can be an amazing tool and resource in our day-to-day lives. However, it can also be invasive and dangerous. My eye has been opened to the dangers of the internet and our identities on it after watching several Ted Talks. One video in particular stood out to me.

Electronic Tattoos

The Ted Talk was given by Juan Enriquez. He began with an analogy about how people are stuck with their tattoos forever, and how we are also stuck forever with our electronic tattoos: our data on the internet.

This was a useful way to help people grasp that whatever they put out onto the internet stays there forever. It is a common thing that people regret sometimes years later, similar to regretting their tattoos.

These electronic tattoos include information such as your activity on Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, Yelp, GPS, cell phones, Travel Advisor, Wikipedia, credit cards, credit scores, and more.

Enriquez discussed that this information is being surveilled by people and that it is difficult to hide from your electronic tattoos for this reason.

Facial Recognition

Facial recognition is another large aspect of being linked to your digital actions. There are machines that can identify a person from their face and reveal their shopping habits for sales associates to take advantage of.

Enriquez speaks about how people used to have to try really hard to get famous and be known, but now we all risk unknowingly being known because our data is easy to access and being watched.

He also says we are threatened with immortality due to our identities being plastered on the internet, which will live forever.

Personally, I was aware of the idea of electronic tattoos before because I think it is similar to the term "digital footprint", which I am familiar with. I believe this is a crucial topic that should be taught to young kids before they put anything on the internet that they will regret.

Protection Moving Forward

The only solution I can think of to protect ourselves from our electronic tattoos being used against us is to be careful and conscious of the tattoos we create moving forward. I say this because we know we can't change the impact we have already had, hence why they are electronic "tattoos".