No New News
Lack of privacy from government surveillance is a huge issue. However, growing up in a such a technological heavy society, I was always aware that nothing of my information was private. Especially when the Edward Snowden debacle broke out, exposure of telephone companies, social media sites, and more were all monitoring and selling our private information for the federal government to collect. This news is nothing new. It’s no coincidence that you'll mention something and then see it pop up in an ad somewhere shortly after. At this point, people online make jokes about this lack of privacy. What truly sucks are that countries all over the world do the same thing, all on differing degrees of severity. At the end of the day, it's abuses of power nonetheless and it's upsetting to know that our government goes behind our back… but then again, America has been hypocritical and corrupt from the time the colonies established themselves, so I can't say I'm shocked (thus is the condition of humanity… corrupt and contradictory).
So, what can we do? Well, hardly anything but cover our asses in the sense that we must be aware of the content we post and share, be aware of the mechanisms implemented to track and monitor us and also think of ways we can get around this surveillance and privacy schism. I'm not saying go off the grid from main stream society and live totally tech free, so the government can no longer collect your information or track your whereabouts. What I am saying is to be aware of how you and your actions might be perceived by the government and the consequences that can arise from that. I'm also saying one might consider taking simple precautions to get around some of the monitoring the government does to us. For example, taking public transportation or using aliases, burner phones and minimizing your online footprint, can all put a conscious at more ease. I know it's unsettling to process that fact that big brother is always watching and how innately wrong and ethically unnerving it is; the principle behind it is still horrific if you're a guilty party or not and it's scary to face this reality about the world. However, what can you do other than raise awareness and advocacy, hoping one day it'll change. Other than that, there's not much that can be done at this point. Take Snowden for example, he divulges all this information, makes great strides in exposing a conspiracy, a true muckraker, and then what?... We forget about him as time typically allows that to happen and we continue on in our lives, posting, sharing, and relying on technology and our government to afford us the pleasures and privileges they offer. Basically, what I'm saying is, the situation looks too bleak because we are all in too deep. Oh well.
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