The idea of the privatization of information verses what is considered public information and the degree to which we are comfortable with that should be thought of on an individual level. Why are we asking others to justify our position on privacy? Our discussion started out revolving around the issue of whether people cared whether companies data mined us, or those who felt it was an invasion of privacy. The point that was brought up was "who are you to tell someone that they can't feel uncomfortable with being data mined" and I completely agree with that. Some people feel there is nothing to hide (another point that was brought up in regard to the point-we do have something to hide. For example embarrassing Facebook pictures). I have nothing to hide but I still don't want people knowing what I search on Google or any other search engine. An interesting point about searching was the degree of manipulation and interpretation that is involved when companies own your information. With the amount of advanced technology out there, the ways of manipulation is significantly easier. (for instance, Photoshop). This is rather terrifying for me. Something that I could be searching for to write a paper on terrorism, or white supremacy (examples from class) could be misconstrued, which could be catastrophic for the individual->again the example of the FBI coming to HWS.
An interesting point that was raised was do we have a choice about whether we use Google. Of course we have a choice, but think about how hard it is not to?Maybe this shows we are complacent and dependent on the internet, but should we be penalized for this with our own identities?
-Anna-
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