The agreements and these companies take down all

The Internet is a digital medium for people of all ages, races, and genders to participate in online communities of social media, entertainment, news, and fictional worlds. As technology and our media ecosystem have advanced individualism is decliningmaking the net an important part of our everyday lives. John Naughton supportsthis notion in his book, “ From Gutenberg toZuckerberg: Disruptive Innovation in the Age of the Internet”.

Naughtonsays,”…change the environment, and you change the organism; change themedia environment and you change society”. (Naughton 25) This is asignificant concept that is very prevalent in the current time. Theadvancements in technology and media are pervasive so in order to keep up andfight for our rights such as privacy we must be aware and educated or we willfail ourselves and the future generations. “ Anyone who seeks to understandthe Net has to realize that disruption is a feature of the system, not a bug, so we need to accept that complexity is something we have to live with. It’snot a temporary aberration, but the new reality. And it’s likely toincrease.” (Naughton 27) The technological revolution we are experiencingand living through is not going to stop or slow down for us and success willrequire courage and change, indefinitely. CullenHoback talks about a “ New Perspective” like Naughton, Hoback also believes thatour minds and our understanding of certain things must change with the developingadvancements in technology.

Should we just surrender our privacy? Is that thetrade we have to make at this point in order to use all these technologies thathelp us connect and communicate? Why does privacy matter so much and is itreally that important? Cullen Hoback believes that we don’t have a privacyproblem what we have is an ownership problem. He says “ The first thing wenaturally own is our self but in the digital world we don’t own ourselves atall, we sign terms and conditions agreements and these companies take down allthis information about us and create a digital profile/self the reflects us, thisintimate portrait of you is something you don’t own and therefore you don’thave privacy.” Privacy exists within ownership; ownership is what we should betalking about when we’re talking about privacy. You have privacy within therealm of what you own like your house, your car, your body, etc. The owner of Facebookhas the digital key to its platform just like we have a key to our homes so isit that we expect privacy within a realm that we do not own.

When I ask myselfthe question of where I feel the safest, I automatically think of home. Let’sthink of it this way, the net is a stranger’s house, a stranger that lets mecome over for a couple of hours to read some books. Since I would be in a housethat is not mine my expectations of privacy are decreased. If we were able tophysically “ surf” the net and or if we could physically go onto Facebook and chatwith other people we would not feel so entitled to the privacy we would expectif we were sitting in our beds using the net virtually.

So should we be willingto give up our privacy for free technology and media or should we pay for ourprivacy to have ownership is a question we must ponder upon as a society. Hobackexplains that a lot of companies are providing privacy related tools called” Privacy by desire” but instead should be providing the option of “ Ownership bydesire”. We need to begin with reclaiming the property of self, physical ordigital, and until we do that we cannot have privacy. On October 29th, a special screening of “ Terms and ConditionsMay Apply” on Capitol Hill hosted by Congressman Justin Amash occurred. Over100 staffers and members of Congress attended responding to the requests of20, 000 people. Asking they get educated on privacy. A panel discussing how torein in the NSA’s activities followed, which included whistleblowers ThomasDrake, Russ Tice, NSA whistleblower attorney Jesselyn Radack, and EFF ActivismDirector Rainey Reitman. The panel was moderated by director Cullen Hoback.

This is part of a continuing effort to draw attention to the issue of onlineprivacy infringement with lawmakers. CullenHoback’s documentary “ Terms and Conditions May Apply” demonstrates how cavalierour society is even when it comes to our own privacy, we have foolishlyopted-in to a real time surveillance state. Companies are making fortunes fromour data and the government is getting something it’s wanted for a very longtime which is a sort of unprecedented access to all of the information on allof its citizens. Online consumers sacrifice their privacy everyday for freeservices like Facebook and Google which in reality aren’t so free.

Nonetheless, we must not lose hope in ourselves and our future. People like Edward Snowdenhave sacrificed their lives to give us hope therefore we must protect ourselvesand fight for what we believe is right.