Hey I'm Gemma and this semester I'm studying New Communications and Technology. This blog is all about what I'll be uncovering in the lectures and discussing it with you
Introduction
Since the introduction of the Web 2.0 there became a rise in social networking sites. Companies like Facebook, LinkedIn etc. collect data about their users and use without their knowledge. Social Networking sites collect the date of its users to customize to their user’s interests and by selling that data to advertising agencies. By posting information on these sites, users are automatically giving up their private information to these companies. Privacy on social networks have been a concerning issue but any information given out onto these sites, is then consider public.
Web 2.0
The Web 2.0 name was founded by Darcy DiNucci, an information architecture consultant in her 1999 article, “Fragmented Future”. In 2004, Tim O’Reilly industrialized the idea during a conference in which was dealing with next-generation Web concepts and issues. (Rouse, 2015) Today the Web 2.0 is the current state of online technology. The differences between Web 2.0 and the World Wide Web is the ability to connect users, content providers and companies. The Web was a source in which date was available online to be viewed but today users are able to collaborate their knowledge onto the Web. Social interaction on the web has had a major impact. Websites now days allow and encourage community sharing and input, particularly through social media sites. (Rouse, 2015)
Social Media Sites
Once something is on the internet it can’t be taken down. Users might think that only your selected friends can see this but those friends can share your information with their friends and so forth. Social networkers take that information you have voluntarily given up and use it to personalize your searches. User privacy concerns establish from sharing content on social media sites, more specifically how they reveal themselves online. All information is permanently collected, even after your account is deactivated, any information you might have shared is accessible from sharing to links to comments on made on other user’s posts. (Commissioner, 2016)
Privacy
Privacy is a hard term to define, as many people have their own definition of what they consider “private”. In 1960, William L. Prosser a leading American scholar on tort law separated privacy into four torts:
1. Intrusion on one’s seclusion or solitude or into one’s private affairs
2. Public disclosure of embarrassing private facts
3. Publicity that places one in a false light in the public eye
4. Appropriation of one’s name and likeness
Australian’s are protected under the Privacy Act 1988 sets out rules called Australian Privacy Principles (APP) that outline how to contain your personal information and what is allowed to be used. However, regarding what social media website may not be covered under the Privacy Act. If there has been a breached and are unable to go through the Privacy Act, users can take legal action through copyright or defamation law. (Commissioner, 2016)
Privacy Concerns
There are certain aspects of our life we are willing to share with people we hardly know, like a doctor and there is private information we’d only share with a close circle of friends and family. We are human beings and we rely heavily on social interaction, we allow ourselves to publish information about ourselves to have the feeling of connecting.
If you were to tell a secret to a group of friends, you would trust that that group of friends would keep that secret. If one of those friends breached that trust you’d be upset? The same goes for online.
Concerns with privacy breaches are identity theft, loss of financial data and data taken from social media. Identity theft involves stealing money or other benefits by taking over someone else’s identity. A study conducted by the Centre for Internet Safety showed that Identity theft is the highest concern amongst Australian citizens at 86%, with loss of financial date at 83% and social media at 42%. (MacGibbon & Phair, 2012) Identity thieves who obtain personal information either based on information a user posts or that others post about the user. (Clearinghouse, 2010)
Privacy and the Internet – Australian attitudes towards privacy in the online environment
Financial loss via scams to gain access to bank account information, credit card numbers and social security numbers. These scams can be in the form of false connection requests, malware, pop-up messages/advertisements and emails with suspicious wed addresses.
Third-party applications are programs that interact within social networks without interacting on the social network, for example; Games to play with contacts, online quizzes, apps that use social media profile via mobiles. Social media developers allow companies access to user’s information. However, most social networks do not take responsibility when third-party applicants interact within these sites. (Clearinghouse, 2010) These third-party applications may not by covered by that social media’s privacy policy and are not certain to be safe. They can gain access to more information than required. These third-party applicants are difficult to contradict what information they are taking and what it will be used for. (Clearinghouse, 2010)
1984 George Orwell
The novel 1984 by George Orwell set in London where the main character of the story Winston Smith is a low ranking member of the ruling Party, who is run by a secretive leader called Big Brother. The Party controls everything and see’s everything. Winston describes living under this security system as; “At any rate, they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live, did live, from habit that became instinct, in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard…” The novel is based on that every action we do is being monitored. The same idea controls what we post on the internet, in our minds we all have something to hide. (Orwell, 1950)
Surveillance on the Internet
Ted Talk’s Glenn Greenwald’s speech on “Why privacy matters” stated that “Equally critical is that the measure of how free a society is, is not how it treats its good, obedient, compliant citizens, but how it treats it dissidents and those who resist orthodoxy. But those most important reason is that a system of mass surveillance suppresses our own freedom in all sorts of ways. It renders off-limits all kinds of behavioral choices without our even knowing that it’s happened” Restricting what we post on social media websites due to fear of being monitored. (Greenwald, 2014)
Criminal and Civil Trials
Any information posted online can and will be used in a criminal or civil court trials, regardless of previously deleted posts. These can include child custody battles, divorce, insurance lawsuits, criminal trials etc. (Clearinghouse, 2010) Judges define “private” and “not public” different concepts. If you share any content with anyone it is then no longer considered private. Therefore, becoming publicly available. Facebook and Twitter are the easiest to access any information shared. The severity of the case will define how much information can be access. (Velasco, 2014)
Precautions for Privacy
Jason Wilson, a lecturer in the digital communication at the University of Wollongong, says “Rather than thinking about restricting people from these services, which I don’t think is realistic, we need to think about educating people perhaps about the importance of protecting their information more effectively”
Users blame social media sites for their lack of privacy settings but in fact it is us who need to be more vigilant on what we share on social networking sites. Users should think before volunteering information about themselves like their name, age and address. There are precautions users can take to increase safety such as strong passwords and security questions that use information only you will know. Have a social email account and a work email account.
When using social media sites become familiar with the privacy settings the site offers and be alert when settings are updated. (MacKillop, 2011)
The Future of the Internet
Tim Berners-Lee the creator of the World Wide Web, gave a talk of the future of the Web in 2009 and his idea was that the Web as a whole can be designed more intelligently to be more intuitive about how to serve a user’s needs. (Berners-Lee, 2009) Today, our searches are customized to what we have previous searched. When scrolling on a website, advertisement pops up catering to our past searches. Berners-Lee classified this as the Web 3.0 in that it will involve the publishing of web resources in languages intended for date to supplement them with metadata that will allow software to analyze, classify and deliver content for more personal relevance. It is a beneficial way for user’s in that their searches are customized for them; some may argue that is a breach of privacy. (Rouse, 2015)
Conclusion Social media isn’t good or bad, it depends on how it is uses. Social media websites have privacy policies in place to protect users but it all comes down to what users post online. The notion of privacy isn’t dead it’s how we see define privacy that separates us from others.
Bibliography
Berners-Lee, T. (2009, February). Ted Talk. Retrieved from Future of the Web: https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_berners_lee_on_the_next_web
Clearinghouse, P. R. (2010, June). Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Retrieved from Fact Sheet 35: How to be Safe, Secure and Social: www.privacyrights.org
Commissioner, A. I. (2016). Privacy Fact Sheets . Australian Government.
Greenwald, G. (2014, October). Ted Talk. Retrieved from Why Privacy Matters: https://www.ted.com/talks/glenn_greenwald_why_privacy_matters
Jarvis, J. (2011). Public Parts . New York : Simon & Schuster.
MacGibbon, A., & Phair, N. (2012). Privacy and the Internet. Centre for Internet Safety .
MacKillop, S. (2011). Surrending to Social Media . Social Impacts of Digital Media, 20-21.
Orwell, G. (1950). 1984. Penguin Publishing Group.
Rouse, M. (2015, January). WhatIs.com. Retrieved from Web 2.0: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/Web-20-or-Web-2
Velasco, J. (2014, December 30). Socialnomics. Retrieved from Social Media Can and Will Be Used Against You in Court : http://socialnomics.net/2014/12/30/social-media-can-and-will-be-used-against-you-in-court/
I wish someone had showed me this during high school, would have made research a lot easier. Diigo is without a doubt the best tool to use while searching for information. Below is a screenshot of my research so far using Diigo.
It’s time for me to write an essay on everything I’ve learnt from these past weeks in lectures. So what would be the best topic to write about? Out of everything I’ve learnt, I think the topic of privacy and social media interests me the most. The questions I need to answer are; do we as social networkers have a right to privacy? And is the notion of privacy dead?
Scrolling through Facebook today I came across an article by Buzzfeed reporting on the Stanford sex assault case. After reading this article I was extremely mad with the decision the judge made. With further reading into this article I found an online petition to remove the judge who gave the sentenced, Judge Aaron Persky. One of this week’s tutorial task is to sign an e petition so this was a perfect opportunity, a win-win situation. Below is the link for the petition, I strongly encourage you to sign it.
Respond to a professional blogger at a major news site.
I reblogged an article from BBC News Twitter account a story of Australia’s first female Aboriginal MP addressing the discrimination she received as a child. It’s a short speech but very inspiring.
What is Barak Obama up to today?
I didn’t know how easy it is to see what Barak Obama schedule is just by going online to the White House’s website. Who knew? Or you can follow on Twitter or Facebook. Barak Obama is in Hawaii at the moment. I decided not to send him a message on freedom because I don’t share any political views on anything. Also, out of the millions who send him a message on social media mine would be just lost amongst them.
What are/were the Australian Government's plans to censor the internet (the so-called "Clean Feed")?
In the name of protecting children, the government will decree we'll be forbidden to see 'unwanted' and 'inappropriate' things on the web (Carlisle, 2009)
What place does censorship have in a democracy?
Democracy is about freedom of speech, censorship limits that idea. Censorship has no place in democracy, private government documents are important for censorship. But the government should be upfront with their people.
What are the benefits of the NBN? What potential form(s) will the NBN take when it is finally rolled out?
I know absolutely nothing about NBN and I read up on it and was still a bit confused. But from what I gathered off iinet website the National Broadband Network (NBN) is a fixed wireless and satellite infrastructure to replace the existing broadband infrastructure with a faster and more reliable broadband service (iinet, 1016)
Find out who your local, state and federal representatives are. Send one a message
I decided not to do this task because I’m not interested or have any knowledge about parliament representatives and why write something you know nothing about?
I’m not one to follow any political parties or any political news really. If I see an issue that interests me I might share it on Facebook but otherwise I’m not interested in politics. Like the Australian Federal Election in July this year, I was eligible but I didn’t register to vote. I guess because I don’t understand anything to do with the different parties that I didn’t want to vote without knowing what I was voting for.
I guess politics are not my biggest concern, they probably should be but why stress about something you have no control over?
The beauty of hackers, says cybersecurity expert Keren Elazari, is that they force us to evolve and improve. Yes, some hackers are bad guys, but many are working to fight government corruption and advocate for our rights. By exposing vulnerabilities, they push the Internet to become stronger and healthier, wielding their power to create a better world.
Today’s lecture was about Hackers and Hacktivists. We watched this TED talk on Hackers and it really intrigued me. I don’t really care about hackers but what Keren Elazari talked about really made me think. Interesting points about how we need hackers and how not all hackers are bad. Keren Elazari has definitely opened my eyes and i highly encourage watching this video.
Elazari, Keren. Hackers: The Internet's Immune System. 2016. Web. 30 Aug. 2016.
This week we were asked to create a survey about social media and post on a social media website asking for participants. I thought the quickest and easiest option for me would be to post in on my Facebook page, hoping that my friends and family would spare a few minutes of their time to fill it out. I received 24 participation’s. Using Facebook was the best option for me because I knew a small proportion of Facebook friends would take the time to complete this survey and that’s all I needed. Also, I’m currently living away from family and close friends the only way for anyone to be able to take the survey was through the one form of social media that has most of my friends and family on.
So I thought, no matter how far away from home I am, I can always know what my friends are up to by what they are posting on Facebook. Which made me think, how private are our lives? Is our information safe with Facebook? I asked my friends and family that same question, only through a survey.
Out of 24 people only 11 feel their information is safe. Honestly, I am one of those people. To me, Facebook probably has the best privacy setting but I still feel my information isn’t as safe as it could be. Could its privacy settings be better?
There you have it is a tie. Out of the 24 people that took my survey half say it could be better. How you may ask? Some of the participants shared their thoughts.
Some interesting ideas. It makes you question is our privacy safe at all? Let me bring your attention to the 4th comment, they bring up a good point. It’s true, anyone and everyone can see what you post, even after you’ve deleted it. And using microphones, cameras etc. are to me, an invasion of privacy.
If we all stop for a moment to think, is our private information safe in the hands of social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram? Can implications be installed to make our private information safer?
Please fill out the survey attached to this entry for your say.
Written, Directed, and Edited by Patrick Cederberg & Walter Woodman Story & Concept by Patrick Cederberg, Walter Woodman, & Matt Hornick Noah -…
SOCIAL MEDIA STALKING 101
This short film by Patrick Cederberg and Walter Woodman really opens your eyes to how our generations use social media sites such as Facebook as an invasion of privacy. How easy it is to log onto someone else’s account and change something in the blink of an eye or dig into their private lives. Thanks to social media websites we jump to conclusions so easily without the full story, like in the film Noah assumes his girlfriend changed her profile picture because she was breaking up with him. Today we use social media to not only communicate but to investigate, we stalk profiles, we follow people and we lurk in the shadows of our screens.
Cederberg, Patrick and Walter Woodman. NOAH. 2013. Web. 23 Aug. 2016
Rob Spence, Director, Rob Spence TV, delivers a Talk at TEDxToronto 2011 on the theme of Redefining Cybernetics. tedxtoronto.com In the spirit of ideas worth...
Cyborgs Are Among Us
Rob Spence delivering a talk at TEDxToronto 2011 discussing the possibilities of cybernetic enhancements. Rob Spence a film director lost his right eye in an accident and replaced it with a tiny camera. He was soon approached by a gaming company to deliver a documentary on the cybernetic enhancements today and possibilities in the year 2027. And yes, the technology is here today. The only thing holding us back is the imagination to innovate it. This begs the question are cybernetic enhancements better for us? As Rob Spence said “We are already cutting off perfectly good parts of our body to look better. If people are doing it just to look better imagine if you could smash through walls or have a laser eye” (Spence, 2011). If we wanted to be a better runner, cut of your legs and get enhance ones. It sounds extreme now but in the future it could be a common thing. There are people among us today that have cybernetic enhancements that have made their life better.
TEDx,. Tedxtoronto - Rob Spence - Redefining Cybernetics. 2011. Web. 16 Aug. 2016.
Today in my lecture, the lecturer asked “Has anyone seen the movie Tron?” and I’d had. Until she showed us the trailer, it was the 1982 version of Tron. I thought she was referring to the 2010 Tron. I didn’t know there was even a 1982 version. So, once the lecture had finished I watched the 1982 version and all I could think was “Wow, special effects in cinematography have come a long way from the 80’s”. Probably in another 30 years there will be even bigger changes to the way we watch movies. Even though the cyberpunk genre was born in the 80’s today we still we movies being made with this theme like Total Recall.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics each year collects figures from Australian citizens on the number of members in their household at that time on the Census night. It has been around since the very first census in 1911. Thanks to our advanced technology, it makes the collection and analysis of data easier. Or so we thought. This year the Australian Census website was shut down and millions of Australians were unable to access the website, leading a number of outbursts of social media websites.
Some have said it was a terrorist’s attack. Seven news reported on what we know.
In a world of advancing technology, is our privacy safe? Is it really that easy to hack into Government websites? Organisations, websites and social media reassure us that our private information is safe but with advancing technology what’s stopping someone from hacking our social media sites, bank accounts etc.
Brennan, Ben, Krystal Johnson, and Catherine Healey. Aussies Left Frustrated With Census After Website Crash. 2016. Web. 10 Aug. 2016.
"What Is The Census? | Census | Australian Bureau Of Statistics". Help.census.abs.gov.au. N.p., 2016. Web. 14 Aug. 2016.
I’ve had a phone since I was 12 years old, guarantee it was always my mum’s old hand me down flip phones. Until she got me my very own, brand new blue web slider and it was the best thing in the world! I could talk to my friends whenever I wanted, take pictures of things I liked and listened to music whenever I could. Today I still use my phone for those exact things but now I have the latest exciting version of those apps.
I personally prefer Facebook out of modern communication, especially if I want to talk to my family. I have my aunties, uncles, cousins, parents and even my grandparents as friends on Facebook. I started Facebook when I started high school. A close friend of mine had it at the time and would continually persuade me to get Facebook for myself. Eventually I caved and gave into temptation. To this day I still use it, mainly to talk to family who live far away. I use most of the latest social networks such as Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat.
Having my identity on so many social networks doesn’t concern me. If people want to know something about me whether it be my interests or my friends, they can easily follow me on one of my active social network accounts. Honestly, it is a lot easier to talk to people who you cannot see. I’m a very shy person so to communicate with people without actually physically speaking to them is a relief for me. I follow people from different parts of the world. I rarely personally speak to them but I follow these people because we share similar interests from music to books. I keep updated with my favorite bands, actors and authors, so when a new album or book is coming out I know straight away. It’ s all about connecting with people and knowing what they are doing at this exact moment.
A perspective is presented on how communications technology has evolved over the last century and has resulted in the digital revolution and information expl...
How Far We’ve Come
This a short YouTube video about the evolution of modern technology. It gives a brief overview of the way technology has changed. And how technology consumes and controls us.
YouTube. (2015). The Evolution of Modern Technology. [Online Video]. 5 March 2015. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKQ03sr6ryo.[Accessed: 3 August 2016].
What if technology could connect us more deeply with our surroundings instead of distracting us from the real world? With the Meta 2, an augmented reality headset that makes it possible for users to see, grab and move holograms just like physical objects, Meron Gribetz hopes to extend our senses through a more natural machine. Join Gribetz as he takes the TED stage to demonstrate the reality-shifting Meta 2 for the first time. (Featuring Q&A with TED Curator Chris Anderson)
Gribetz, Meron. A Glimpse Of The Future Through An Augmented Reality Headset. 2016. Web. 27 July 2016
My name is Gemma and I am a student at Griffith University. I’m studying a Public Relations and Communication degree. I’m unsure as to what career I would like to pursue after this but it’s an exciting adventure charging into the unknown. Apart of my Public Relations and Communication degree is that I partake in ‘New Communication and Technology’ course. So far it has been enlightening into the world of new communication and technologies. It interesting to look at the online community I place myself in every day. This course will hopefully broaden my understanding of technology and open my mind to the possibilities of future technology
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