Privacy: Online and Offline

 

    Privacy, it is a right so sacred that it is the 4th Amendment in the Bill of Rights. Since the conception of social media platforms and big tech, our privacy has been harvested and sold to the highest bidder. When users log into social media platforms- like Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, and others- they sign a virtual contract where the one party holds all of the power. This contract is called an Adhesion Contract. 

    Online companies have composed a digital dossier about each and every one of us. They have sensitive information ranging as private as sexual orientation to as public as your favorite music group. They use this information to cater advertising to you and sometimes sell it to the highest bidder. This is known as the Third Party Doctrine; this is when the first party voluntarily gives information to the second party, the first party relinquishes all control to the use of that information by a third party. 

    

    Even our offline privacy is being tarnished by social media. People will take pictures of someone with odd clothes- their personal choice on what to wear- and target them and make fun of them online. The things that we do in our home is being advertised by people with a camera and super computer all in one. While the circumstances are different and our private information is not being sold, our privacy is being invaded by this modern necessity of technology.

    Our privacy is constantly being tracked, even when we don't realize it. When we login to websites or simply walk outside of our home, we enter in to legally binding contracts that essentially sell away our entire souls. From social media online to our at home Alexa speakers, everything we do, every move we make, we are being tracked, manipulated, and sold to the highest bidder for quick advertising and a quick buck.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2019/06/22/social-media-killed-our-offline-privacy-too/?sh=6f6e55b63b96

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/08/when-it-comes-to-internet-privacy-be-very-afraid-analyst-suggests/

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/11/15/americans-and-privacy-concerned-confused-and-feeling-lack-of-control-over-their-personal-information/