Has Privacy Taken a Backseat in the Digital Age?

Updated: June 22, 2013

In an age of digital information that controls our lives and finance from Google Glasses to drones in the sky, it seems that privacy is something we all value. Many of our forefathers fought and died for what is being taken for granted. We all want to feel what we do is our own business but it seems that literally almost everyday we see things that are deteriorating the fabric of our own basic privacy and which makes our private lives, not so private. Just in the last few weeks we’ve seen an American in the information business blow the whistle on the NSA, and now we see Facebook admitting they accidentally gave out our information in a PC mishap.

If you live in the modern world, the Internet and online information is a key source of our daily lives and if you actually purchase or do business on the net there’s a trail somewhere of what you did, becoming a double edged sword that has good and bad points. Sure if you are a shopper and you have a trend for certain things a program that searches for those results and has them readily available is a cool thing, but on the other hand you’re now providing financial and personal information to get these results and that could have a devastating effect on you if that information gets into the wrong hands. Things like draining your bank accounts to getting a job using your name are all very real and actual threats.

Having information on everything you do also leaves you very wide open to attacks on belief systems, sexual orientation and political views that someone or some agency may hold against you. As a people, we really need to grow up and join together but this does not mean we all have to become radicals, but we do need to find a way to make accountable those entities private or corporate that abuse our privacy and try and exploit it for their own ends. Personally, I’m getting older now, but I see a future of a golden age or an age of darkness but only this time instead of being ignorant peasants for the most part we will be slaved by the very technology that helps us. Many cities like Seattle have the entire city under camera surveillance in order to make the city safe, and maybe there’s some truth to that, but in my eyes it’s basically spying on the people.

I feel if the trends continue our days of any privacy will be gone with the wind and our lives will become micromanaged by some agency or an IRS equivalent which may start out as an idea to help but, in time, will eventually let them be higher than the law and become unstoppable. If you are reading this article, chances are you are a tech savvy individual but just imagine if everything you do in your life becomes a documented event that actually gets scrutinized by someone or, God forbid, some program that determines if you are right minded. If you think I am blowing smoke up your ass or being a Sci-Fi freak, rethink the situation as the writing is on the wall and if we do not find ways to curtail big brother, he will be watching you. What he does in the future with all this information is for now simply speculation, but the potential for taking advantage of us all is right there prime for the picking. How do you feel about your privacy and does all this new information about watching us as well as leaking our personal information upset you? If so let us hear why you think that on Tech Of Tomorrow where you always have a voice worth hearing. I know this is really not the usual Tech diet I serve, but thanks for reading in any case. Peace.