YOU post it, THEY own it!

More people have a facebook account then the total population in the United states, that's over 3 million people. Over 3 million people, put their personal information on the internet. Now anyone can access it, even if their account is private. In the click of a button anyone can know your address, phone number, anything. the reason for this, is, we have no internet privacy. Facebook is the worst when it comes to privacy. In fact facebook sells your information to third parties, for advertising purposes. No matter where you go, what you do or search, people will always be able to get that information through data bases that save that information. None of us are save from the internet spies and will never be unless we have some laws that protect us.

      As of now only sixteen states have some privacy laws, unfortunately most of the don't cover at home privacy and only talk about employee privacy. Nevada and Minnesota are requiring internet service providers to keep certain information private if it concerning their customers, unless the customer gives permission to reveal the information. That means only the things their provider knows is secret but what about all of the things on their email and other accounts that's supposed to be private. those things are still not private which means even with the laws people are still extremely vulnerable to internet scams and hackers. In California and Utah, the laws require all non-financial businesses to inform customers, by writing a letter or by email, the types of private information the business shares with or sells to third parties for direct marketing purposes. So not only are you and your information unsafe but now people are making profits from it. that's unsafe and invading. In responds to complaints such as those, business' reply by saying "you posted it." monitor what you say or else someone might just tell you, "you post it online why can't I use it."

      Not only do business' use your information but, so do colleges. If students apply to college, chances are the college that is applied to is one that uses facebook for information about the student. Any tagged photos, status', videos, and even conversations are used against them. So yet again facebook is the cause to a problem, the difference is, this time it will affect someones whole future, and could possible change their life, and not always in a good way. When a student denies adding a college (as a friend) on facebook, the college will then turn around and add a friend to try and get access to any sort of pictures, videos, or comments. Which means you have no choice as to whether or not you get spied on. Watch what you post and what posts your in because chances are you might just be tagged in a picture that could be the cause of you being denied from a great college like Harvard. Schools are not the places that use facebook and other networks to spy.

      Work places are now using emails, social networks, and cell phones to gain access to workers personal information. In the case Quon VS. Ontario police department. In this case OPD gave their employees phones. Most of the officers went over the limit for texts, all though they paid for the overage fees the OPD was curious as to weather they needed to increase the text plans or if it was mostly personal usage. They then got all of the text messages from their carrier and began searching through them. Quon was later fired for explicit content in his messages. Quon sued for a violation of the fourth amendment. The police department never gave any notification of the search in fact the officers had no idea the search was even being though of. All of the officers privacy was violated just so they could know if a plan updated was needed, when really the OPD could have easily ask the officers if there messages were all work related. The police department feels they issued the phones so they are technically property of the department not the officers that used them. Picture this, you call, text, or email your mom or dad, from work to talk to them about something urgent and extremely private. The part you don't know is your work records all of that information. Now everything you discussed that was PRIVATE is no longer a secret. Once you walk through the doors to your job your personal life is over. Luckily not every employer uses methods to spy, this does not mean someone else isn't.

     
     "Our virtual lives are our lives," says Adam Bunting. So when you go to make that post about how much you love partying, just remember Harvard wont except the answer "I'm not really like that." or "That's not what I meant." Say what you mean and mean what you say because not everyone will take it the same way. Another thing when you go shopping online to get that awesome new Lady GaGa song keep in mind before you put your credit card number in, anyone can then get those numbers. The internet is not a safe place this is why we need protection! If we had a law passed saying private things can STAY private we would all be much safer.

One can lead to One MILLLION

Are you in Conrol?

My Interveiw

I interviewed Adam Bunting an administrator at Champlain Valley Union High School. He Believes' "Our virtual lives are our lives." So basically you posted it with the intention for someone to see it, don't be surprised when they do. But that doesn't mean he supports sneaky behavior, such as colleges sneaking around facebook trying to get dirt on applying students. As an administrator many students come to him involving social network site such as facebook. "Bully, inappropriate behavior (such as sexting), and harassment," are the most common issues he said. Facebook is now the leading cause to most high school drama, almost every child/teen has a facebook and everyday more join.

To complete this interview I needed to email Mr. Bunting informing him about my trail topic and request that we meet. The Snelling house secretary then called me and we set up an appointment. Before I met with him I needed to create 5-6 question about internet privacy, school, how there related, and cell phone use. I then met with him, I explained right away how I'm not a fast writer and so he answer each question very simply. The meeting was very quick and affective. 

Stakeholders

In this case it is hard to determine what should STAY private and what is OPEN for ANYONE. Some people believe internet privacy is something we all need but don't have. In fact People consider our lack of safety and vulnerabilities to hackers a plague. We need privacy and we're lacking. Most people aren't worried and they should be. We are being spied on.  Internet crime is big and we should be protected. But not everyone feels that way.

While some feel safety is top priority, and if you say you want something private, it should stay that way. Where as others say you posted it. Facebook doesn't care if you want something private, you posted it so its now theirs. In fact in the user agreement it basically says when you post something facebook then owns it. But people don't understand, why post it if its private? Facebook believes that you put it there for people to see, so they can now sell it to third  parties, advertising agencies, and scammers. they can get your information like your phone number and address all because you put it online. 

Panel Day Reflection

I strongly agree with what Mike and Kevin had to say about Internet privacy. Laws need to change with time and Mike even said, "When your four years old and you get a new jacket, your not going to be wearing the same jacket when your fifty," in other words as times change so will laws. Kevin then warned us, "(in the user agreement) You will find surprising information about what they can do with the information and who owns it," so before you go ahead and make an account check out what facebook says about where your information is going. For the most part Kevin and Mike agree on each statement each one made. They both agreed on the fact that the internet is not a safe place and to have caution while putting our selves out there.  

Annotated Bibliography

Annotated Bibliography 

Interviews

Adam Bunting -
Telephone # to reach him at CVUHS is: 802-482-7151
Email: ABunting@cvuhs.org

Robin Lauzon-
Telephone # to reach her at CVUHS is: 802-482-7131
Email: RLauzon@cvuhs.org

Court Cases

One court case that has recently became a wild fire of talk and gossip, is Robbins VS, Lower Marion School District. A student named Blake Robbins was brought in to his assistant principles office, apparently he had been performing  "improper behavior in his home." but how would she know? well the school district had been spying through the built in webcams on the laptops they gave to the students in a new computer program where EVERY student gets a laptop for the year. She used a picture taken from the laptop as evidence against the young boy to try to punish him for out of school behavior. Three schools got the laptops, and multiple students are now suing the school district for their violation of privacy.

Another case is Quon VS. Ontario police department. In this case OPD gave their employees pagers. Many of the officers went over the limit for texts, even though they had to pay for the overage fees the OPD was curious as to weather they needed to increase the plans or if it was mostly personal usage. They got the messages from their carrier and began searching through the messages. Quon was later fired do to explicit content in the messages during work hours. he them sued the OPD for a violation of the 4th amendment. The court later announced in favor of the OPD. 




First part:

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/19/school-accused-of-using-webcam-to-photograph-student-at-home/

http://www.newser.com/story/86446/spying-school-district-has-thousands-of-secret-pix-of-kids-lawsuit.html

http://www.newser.com/story/81237/school-gives-kids-laptops-spies-on-them-via-webcam.html

http://boingboing.net/2010/02/17/school-used-student.html


second part:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/08-1332.ZS.html

http://iepolitics.com/2010/04/20/inlandpolitics-ontario-police-department-case-matter-heard-before-us-supreme-court%E2%80%8F/

Currrent Interpritation

As of now there are NO nation wide laws about your internet privacy or safety. On the other hand some individual states are starting to take action for example. Nevada and Minnesota are requiring internet service providers to keep certain information private if it concerning their customers, unless the customer gives permission to reveal the information. Where as in California and Utah, the laws which are not specifically targeted to online businesses, also require all non-financial businesses to reveal to customers, by writing a letter or by email, the types of private information the business shares with or sells to third parties for direct marketing purposes. Under the California law, businesses can post a privacy statement that gives customers the chance to reject sharing the information at no cost.

These Law only affect four states what about the other forty six states? they get left out, unprotected, and victim to scams EVERYDAY

http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=13463

Constitutional Connection

As I stated in my previous post, The 4th amendment in the Constitution Prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and sets out requirements for search warrants based on probable cause. So, A computer is part of your home right? well then why do people we don't know get to check out the things we do on them? being apart of our home implies that we have to right to deny any search upon any aspect of it. But on the other hand the internet is something that is not apart of our home so therefore there is a loop hole in which people take advantage of. How did they get the right, privilege, and permission to go through our personal, private business? Being that there are two sides to this problem in the 4th Amendment, it puts our need to know answers in a gray area causing HUGE controversies over the problem at hand.


Freedom of speech, does this include the following:

• Getting denied from collage for saying something you think?
• Getting denied for blog post? 

I don't think it mean you can say something you think then get your life denied because of an out loud thought. It means the freedom to say what you feel with out consequences. 

Issue Explanation

Internet Privacy is a big topic right now because people are starting to learn their internet lives aren't as private as they might think. "Privacy refers to the general belief that certain things such as written materials, oral communications, and matters having to do with personal relationships are confidential and should remain so unless they are voluntarily divulged." stated by James P. Colt. But why is that our PRIVATE email accounts are open to anyone? James P. Colt also confirms our fear, "digital footprints remain after one surfs the Internet, posts information to a Web site, or sends and receives email or text messages." Does this tell us we have absolutely NO privacy? Yes, social security numbers, passwords, online banking information... all of which are a hackers dream come true. All of your account information is there for who ever knows how to get it. But now its getting easier, Facebook, just about everyone has heard of the social network sweeping across the nation.Well as a lot of young people put their phone number and address there Facebook is selling it to third party companies. Facebook has recently announced that they are making members phone numbers and addresses available to developers and other third party companies.this means you will be getting spam text messages. NOT COOL. Facebook also tried to say they are asking permission to give away information, according to Chloe Albanesius "there are just too many attacks happening on a daily basis which trick users into doing precisely this." which mean the Facebook pop up you get... isn't always Facebook. Overall When your online and your asked if you want your information private, Remember, NOTHING on the internet is private! Is there a law against this? nope! The 4th amendment in the constitution Prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and sets out requirements for search warrants based on probable cause. Does this include computers and internet searches? why or why not? things such as this are why internet privacy are in a gray zone for people. Unknown searches through our private things all the time, and the right to refuse isn't even there.

http://issues.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/1560148?terms=internet+privacy
 

http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Viewpoints&prodId=OVIC&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&documentId=GALE|EJ3010735214&mode=view http://realestatecoach.com/blog/?p=294

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2375888,00.asp

Trial Search "The beginning"

Internet Privacy, something that not a single person in this world has. No matter what your searching looking at or posting someone can see it. Personal emails.... Think again the government can access with ease. Just graduation high school? wanting to go to collage? How about that post on Facebook about the party you went to?? UVM: DENIED! Yes that's right collages will also snoop through your social pages to see what you have been up too. do you like online gambling? Well GOOD NEWS!! People sell that information so you can get scammed into signing up for something FAKE! Okay so we've learned that computers aren't safe but what about cell phones? NOPE there not safe either. I know sad right so that text message you sent five minutes ago about the under age drinking at a party yesterday is open for just about any hacker to see! We now know our world of electronics is NOT private at all.

• Why are people allowed to look at our personal things?
• Why don't we have any privacy?
• Do we lack privacy do to being less important? 
• Is there anyway to protect our selves?
• does privacy mean anything?