This past Tuesday, my class watched multiple TED talks that had to deal with corporations that listen to you while you go about your daily life. The speakers were pretty amazing; as I learned that there was a company that produced the most popular doll in the world. This doll could do some pretty amazing things. It could talk, learn, and adapt based on how the child was playing with them. The magic behind this doll was basically it being connected to the internet. However, a strange number of events led to the rapid decline and ban of the doll throughout multiple nations and regions. In Germany, the doll was banned and even placed in the Berlin spy museum. It was discovered that the doll could easily be hacked and anyone could access the dolls voice features and use it to communicate with children. Had this been discovered by criminals and kidnappers a great number of children could have been harmed. From these TED talk speakers, we learned a great deal of facts about tech companies and what they do with your private information. It has been found that police officers, FBI, and CIA have been collecting files on everyone from their basic information online, to surveillance videos and recordings and social media information. These organizations have even admitted that this information is kept to analyze and prepare for future crimes. It is scary to think about how most things in our homes are connected to some sort of internet or connection. Some have compared your information and digital footprint to a tattoo. Once you have it; it can not be removed no matter how many attempts one makes to do so. Even though it is our private information, we easily hand it out to every company that asks us to do so. Have you ever read the terms and conditions of a particular software, service, or product? I have checked the little box that says I did, but who really reads something that can be hundreds of thousands of pages. My point that I am trying to make is that no one truly knows or even understands what the terms says or means. Many companies like Facebook and YouTube actually place clauses in their contracts that gives them full power and even ownership of what they post, such as photos, videos, quotes, and other content. These clauses also state that they can use this content for whatever purpose that they choose for ever how long they wish. This means that these companies are permitted to do anything that they wish with your private information, even give or sell it to the government or foreign powers and influencers. The only bad thing is about these terms and conditions is that most of us skip them because they are boring and long, but we also skip them because we know that in order to do certain things we have to agree to the terms no matter what. This is where companies have all of their power; as we the consumer have no power to negotiate. There are some pre-cautions that we can take that limit these corporations to an extent. Our first move would be to limit our use and time on social media and to avoid giving out so personal information. When we have private meetings or discussions be sure to turn off your phone or any devices that have built in listening devices, such as Siri or Amazon's Alexa. One final idea would be to disconnect from most of these platforms or companies that can be dangerous to private information, or at least, you can scan over the terms and conditions that these companies have placed for you to read. Consider the terms carefully before you make any decisions on or about using any company's services or products.
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