I recently was reading an article from the New York Times entitled, The Apps on My Phone Are Stalking Me, by Farhad Manjoo that really got me thinking how ignorant I am to what information is being stored about me as I go about my day utilizing all the modern conveniences available. This got me thinking about a movie I saw many years ago called The Truman Show. In the movie, surveillance is everywhere. In fact, the main character’s whole life is a reality show unbeknownst to him. He has no privacy whatsoever as the whole world watches his every move. Seems a bit far fetched? Or is it more relatable in contemporary America than we would like to admit?
Due to advances in technology, we have access to everything right at our fingertips. From computers, phones, i-Pads, cameras and even watches, we can get and send information immediately. However, all this information is under surveillance and tracked. What exactly is surveillance? According to Merriam-Webster Dictionary, surveillance means: close watch kept over someone or something. Personal data is stored and can be assessed by companies. This “big data” is shared and used to predict our habits and patterns in our daily life. Is this an invasion of our privacy? Does it impinge on our basic rights? It is a big price to pay for the convenience of technology. As a society how do we handle this new age of surveillance and “big data”? How can we not be so heavily influenced by it? There are no easy answers. I can’t help but wonder where we will go from here.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/opinion/phone-data-privacy.html