Warning: The End of Privacy!

The concept of personal privacy has evolved quite a bit over the past few decades. Information that the populace considers to be personal and private is now accessible at the blink of an eye. New technology has sprouted that helps others find the personal information and even location of others around them. It is evident that lots of personal information has been made public. This includes past jobs that one has taken, home addresses, phone numbers, pictures from social media sites, family members, activity on the internet, etc.This new phenomenon of expanding information and accessibility to personal information is changing the way that we think about the word privacy. What does privacy and personal information really mean during the 21st century? How has the idea of privacy changed? How does this affect you and where do you stand on this topic? These are all vital questions to consider while analyzing this trend and is important for anyone who values personal privacy.

While researching the growth of this trend, I found an article explaining that the government can now secretly know everything about you from 164 feet away via. the use of hidden scanners. The article states that, "within the next year or two, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security will instantly know everything about your body, clothes, and luggage with a new laser-based molecular scanner fired from 164 feet (50 meters) away" (Gizmodo, 1). This new technology is completely evolving the idea of personal space and privacy. Now the government can access your personal information, including things that you do not approve of, without a reason or without your knowledge. Additionally, the article explaining this new technology phenomenon states that "according to the undersecretary for science and technology of the Department of Homeland Security, this scanning technology will be ready within one to two years, which means you might start seeing them in airports as soon as 2013" (Gizmodo, 1). Not only is your personal privacy being disregarded but you are also the target for unwarranted suspicions and interest. 

It is an interesting topic to be researching because personal preferences about how their information is publicly distributed doesn't matter. The government will and is requiring the technology to put their ideas into action and we will be forced into a public knowledge generation, where our personal information is no longer personal. So where does our control start and where does it end? The question is, how can we, if we can, halt the distribution of our personal information? Is there a way to limit the amount of information that we put out on our social networks as a way of protecting our privacy? These questions lead into a deeper discussion of how the spread of personal information occurs and how we can take control and prevent of privacy from being breached. 

The link to the website that I used to further my research into this topic is http://bit.ly/PSvUJj. If you have any interest in this topic or want to read more about what this author wrote, feel free to click and see what you think about this privacy topic! Hope you enjoyed my blog post :-) Your comments are welcomed!