Our Surveillance Society

From social media sites to surveillance cameras to smartphones, each and every one of us leaves a digital trail that is being closely monitored with or without our knowledge. From the moment we wake up to the alarm on our smartphone, we begin engaging in the digital world. Before even getting out of bed, most of us check our emails, read news headlines and browse through our social media accounts. Every time we engage in this behavior “big data” is being stored which is accessible. As we exit the house and begin on our journey, our smartphones already know where we are going and tell us how long it will take to get there. Amazing! Right? We do not even have to put in where we are going, our phones know based on our typical travel where we are headed. Pretty cool? Or pretty scary?

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