Week 15: Privacy and its Violations

When companies gather data they often leave those who they gather it from deceived by properly confusing contracts to allow them to take advantage of us through misinformation tactics. These misinformation is in contracts where they know they can get information in legal yet morally wrong days. This data they then sell without us knowing because it is stipulated in the unread contract. This data to is often treated insecurely leading to large groups of people having access to the data which has lead to abuses with peoples unknowingly collected data. This is a new frontier of property rights sense our ownership of data is currently being debated along with our right to privacy which is why it is such an emerging and foggy area what is or isn’t protected. I personally believe that we should have a right to own our data along with companies asking to use it being required to be upfront  due to data being something that I would argue we have a right to control access to it. The other part of this argument is to decide if data is even considered property or part of privacy sense it is a new idea in this landscape and hasn’t yet been propley decided on what it is

Week 14: News Deserts

A news desertis something that I learned about this week but immediately caught my interest as an underacknowledged epidemic hurting American society. It is shocking the number of counties in the U.S., one of the most developed nations in the world, which still lack news. We went over our 8 freedoms of expressions but those expressions to exist needs strong news which is why it is such a surprising and important issue. News deserts stop information from being spread through their communities which holds up our freedoms sense without information individuals can’t practice their freedoms. This issue of news deserts is getting worse to as media consolidation and lack of interest kill local news outlets which often cover some of the most impactful information on peoples life’s. Without this impact of news it hurts their communities and lets local issues go unknown. This issue is one very threatening to communities but is also extremely hard to fix.

Week 13: Vertical Integration

Vertical Integration is a very unique and interesting concept seen often with current day business models. It makes sense for businesses want to cut out as many possible middlemen as they can to maximize products. However it is interesting the unthought of lengths we have gone to allow them but also make sure they don’t fall into becoming monopolies which has happened with unchecked vertical integration in the past as seen with the Rockefeller family and their oil monopoly. With the danger of monopoly looming and leading to inflated prices along with zero competition thus cutting of the marketplace of ideas that is a byproduct of competition and leads to progress. This threat of monopoly is one that must be prevented but it is also interesting sense vertical integration is natural for a company to want and also something that to stop one wouldn’t want to risk over regulation with. It is a very tricky concept due to this dilemma where there isn’t truly s perfect answer but rather a case by case basis this is seen currently with Facebook having arguably a monopoly in social media with no major competition which lets it put out unchecked messages that impact public perception while also being able to lie to its consumers with small repercussion. The way of dealing with Facebook has been argued from anti trust laws to letting it stay as is but just as dealing with others issues of vertical integration it is one that is complicated and messy.

Week 12: My Online Presence

Facebook is known to archive and sell data on its users. It has been claimed that from data collection through sites such as Facebook the average American has around 5,000 data points on themselves. When seeing this I decided to look up my own online footprint which I generally keep small with little social media use and with few sites using my actual name. When I searched myself I was pretty astonished by the amount I could find. This happened through what I was tagged in, who I followed or liked, and some information popping up from places that I still don't know. If someone didn't know me they could find relatively easily my home, date of birth, hobbies, who I associate with, organizations I am involved with, and even my political party. This was all from simple searches relating to me showing tons of information not even factoring in that their are professionals who research people online and how companies can buy even more information from groups such as Facebook. Which leads to the idea that if the average person such as myself using social media or even just their friends do then how much privacy do they really have? Most revealing pieces of information about me came from my friends accounts who just had me in it so I didn’t even feel that large parts of information I found I even released about myself  rather it was friends who are more active on social media just sharing times we had spent together. This really makes me wonder if trying to keep privacy is even possible or worth the effort now in a time when information is so easily displayed about our life’s.

Week 11: Diffusion of Innovations

To read about how the diffusion of smart phones happened read here. If asked what the most influential piece of technology in the last 20 years was many would say the smart phone. This answer is so important because the serve essentially as computers now but also went from something few owned or had access to then became something where everyone is expected to have one on their person at all times. When looking at how diffusion happened with smart phones began with the early adapters who tended to be upper-class young people but there then exposing them to others quickly made them start to take off. Then it became more mainstream do to the iphone's wide range of apps giving them more uses both practical and entertainment wise. Soon after they were cemented in mainstream sense they became a part of other aspects of life such as widely being used in work due to the fact that everyone being able to have internet access had huge work advantages due to them being able to have access to unlimited information. Overall they have become so involved in our society that they are possible the quickest technology in recent memory to be diffused so heavily sense people in developed countries are now expected to not only own them but carry them at all times.

Week 10: Most Important Freedom of Expression

Out of the 8 freedoms of expression one stands out to me as the most important and that is freedom to check govermental power. The reason why I believe this to be the most important is because it protects all the other freedoms from being encroached on by the government. By being able to critizise the governmetn it keeps it in check from corruption while also advocating for our nation to be moving in the right direction. While all expressions are important this one type of expression serves also as a watchdog role that none of the others fufill. As mentioned this type as expression has led to discoveries such as watergate leading to Nixon's resignation showing how influencial this type of expression can be to stop grave government misconduct. This is why it is so infuential sense it gives power to the people rather then the government which is what a healthy and lasting democracy requires. This scrutiny of goverment is what is seen to be the first part of speech to go during the decine of a truthful government as seen when several other democracies have failed starting with them regulating speech about their government. Overall this type of expression may not be the most interesting to discuss but is the most vital as the bedrock for other expressions to exist.

Presentation link

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Luu2igWVIuBDcX5lGZYAYvAQwoxtv7VAQKLvIBS7n6g/edit#slide=id.p