Ted Talks Concerning Privacy

    After watching the Ted Talks assigned I think there is a multitude of different things that can be done in order for us to protect ourselves and our privacy. I also believe there is a multitude of things that private businesses and the government can do to help protect our privacy. 

    I believe these issues affect myself, my friends, and my family more than we realize. I say this because we live in a time in which convenience is everything to us. We want, what we want when we want it. We hesitate for no one and have become a society that wants things that the speed of light. Due to this, we tend to be naive to the agreements we check yes to when signing up for an app or other site. Finn Myrstad talks about this best in his Ted Talk, stating, "This is why my colleagues and I decided to take a deeper look at this. We set out to read the terms of popular apps on the average phone. And to show the world how unrealistic it is to expect consumers to actually read the terms, we printed them, more than 900 pages, and sat down in our office and read them out loud ourselves, streaming the experiment live on our websites. It took us 31 hours 49 minutes and 11 seconds to read the terms on an average phone." To watch Myrstad's full video visit, www.ted.com/talks. This small experiment goes to show of many of us do not have the time or effort to actually read the terms we are agreeing to. I myself am guilty of this, I click, "I understand" or "I agree" and move on my merry way. This habit of neediness has led me to agree at the expense of my own privacy, I allowed this to happen. 

    After heading Myrstad speak about the Cayla doll I began to think about how we can protect ourselves and those around us, The Cayla doll, allows children to ask the doll questions and with speech recognition, the doll can search the internet for answers and then respond to the child. The doll can also be connected to via any smartphone within 60 feet of the doll. This means people outside of the household. To learn more about the Cayla doll and how it imposes on privacy you can watch Mystad's Ted Talk listed above or read this article from www.dailymail.co.uk. After watching the Ted Talk alongside reading Dailymail's article it has made me realize the importance of truly understanding what we are putting in our homes and lives. After learning about the capabilities of the Cayla doll, I believe it is important that we are fully aware of the things we are saying yes to. Another way we can protect ourselves is by using services that are highly encrypted. Christopher Soghoian does a great job of explaining what sites are the safest to use and also what chatting apps are the most encrypted. Soghoian does a great job at explaining why encrypted messages are safer but how this imposes on tracking people if a crime has been committed. To listen to Soghoian's full explanation, watch his full video at www.ted.com/talks.

    The government could play a huge part in the protection of our privacy but tend not to. There are many reasons why they might not, I believe the system is weak because they are naive to what is happening, they don't pay attention until something is brought to their attention. I do believe it would beneficial for the government to have laws and policies to help hold companies accountable for their actions, something more than just a fine. I say this because any major company that is overstepping privacy is most likely bring in so much revenue that a fine simply does not teach them a lesson

    Overall we are all at fault for the lack of privacy, we the consumer does not pay attention and we want something fast so we click and go on our way. The government is at fault for not protecting the people better, they allow companies to do this with little to no reprimands. Lastly, companies do this at the expense of their users, they make things more complex when it's not always necessary. They also harvest or sell this data for their own gain. If we all made adjustments there could be complete transparency but until there is a push for this there will most likely not be a change.