My Real Name Here
ACADEC Speech(Still in Alpha)
Data. A broad term. In school, data might be the numbers you put into your Physics project. At work, it might be the amount of sales you make in a week. For computers, it is information. This information is collected on many places on the internet. Popular examples include Facebook and Google. This occurs through cookies, and not the Oreos you ate with milk at bedtime. These are small files that store YOUR INFORMATION, YOUR PREFERENCES. Everything you put on the internet is always recorded, no matter if you delete it. Once you put something on the internet, it is always there. This is the cold hard truth, and many people, and companies, have been using this data collection to further their own gains.
On July 29th, Microsoft released the new Windows 10 OS to the general public. Now, one of the most controversial things is Cortana. This is the Microsoft equivalent of Apple's Siri, of Google's Now, of Samsung's S Voice. However, it, along with the rest of the OS, is a data mine that is worse than many. It scans your contacts, your files, and will share your WiFi password with others. If you bother to read the EULA, or End User License Agreement, it states something along the lines of, We will access and preserve personal data, such as the contents of your emails and your files. I'm not sure about you, but a major company looking through MY personal files with the ability to release them to anyone, is pretty scary.
Another example that ties along with the data collection theme is Ads. Those annoying ads that pop up on many websites. But have you noticed that some contain what you just searched for? If you search for “Laptops under 700 USD”, you will often find some ads that have what you just searched. If you looked up “How to cook chicken”, you might just see some recipes for chicken. Likewise, if you post something on Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, you might find ads popping up for whatever you mentioned. If you happen to know certain commands in Command Console or Terminal, you could easily find out how many things are monitoring your internet connection and what you do. For these major companies, it is child's play to find this sort of information.
An infamous, very recent scandal that occurred is the Whistle blower Edward Snowden. Around June 2013, he revealed numerous documents pertaining to classified government documents. Some of these Documents pertained to a program called PRISM. It is a surveillance program that allows to collect internet data from at least nine major internet companies, such as Google, Microsoft, and Facebook. Not only did this program focus on US citizens, but on other “high value” politicians. This program is a sheer violation of American Citizens rights, for starters. It violates whatever privacy you had, or rather, what you thought you had. It also goes to show you how far some people are taking data collection. This might have been viewed as a safety measure, but it violates a citizen’s privacy.
Data. A small, four letter word. A very insignificant word. But it can entail our privacy and personal life. Companies and people are taking advantage of our data. It could be as something as simple as a Facebook update, or something as large as a tax form. But all forms of Data are useful, no matter how insignificant they may seen. And ever out government has realized this. This collection service is touted to be something that eases your life. Friends always asking for WiFi passwords? Built into their phone. Saving your passwords so you only have to put them in once? Done. But these small things are easy exploits into something much work..
I need to fix that ending.
DARN IF I WAS THERE FOR A FEW MORE DAYS!!!!
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