I was scrolling through AdAge.com the other day and saw an article by Kate Kaye about President Obama’s recent speech. In his speech (which I posted above), Obama compares the NSA’s online surveillance to that of many big, well-known corporations. He even points out that people who work for the NSA are in fact real people with real children and spouses who undoubtedly online shop and use social media. If Target can use your information to track your buying patterns, why shouldn’t the NSA be able to do something similar?
I don’t want to make any sweeping conclusions about the issue, but I do think he has a point. I bet Google knows me better than my own parents and friends do, but nobody seems to be obsessing over that. I think it’s safe to say that most Americans are viewing this issue with a double standard.
So what can we do about this? To be honest, I have no idea. I do, however, think that corporations should be held to the same standards as the NSA. It’s much creepier to think about “big brother watching” when it’s the government, but we should not allow Facebook and Google to know about our personal lives if we’re going to keep the government in the dark.
Maybe I’m naive, or maybe I just don’t do anything sketchy enough to really care about the government tracking my internet searches, but I see nothing wrong with the NSA having the capability to look into something if it seems like a national security issue. If Obama is telling the truth, the NSA cannot do anything to invade our privacy that big companies can’t do.
In a similar vein, should we allow corporations to know as much about us as they do? While it can be nice to see an advertisement for something I am actually interested in, it can be a problem sometimes. For instance, theteenage girl who got “Congrats on Your Pregnancy” coupons in the mail was probably not pleased that Target ended up breaking the news to her father before she could.
Then again, we live in an era of technology and interconnectedness. We might need to accept the fact that everything we put on the internet automatically becomes public domain. We shouldn’t buy things online and tweet about our feelings if we are worried about privacy.
If you don’t have time to watch President Obama’s full speech, check out this short YouTube video with the relevant clip.
I don’t want to make any sweeping conclusions about the issue, but I do think he has a point. I bet Google knows me better than my own parents and friends do, but nobody seems to be obsessing over that. I think it’s safe to say that most Americans are viewing this issue with a double standard.
So what can we do about this? To be honest, I have no idea. I do, however, think that corporations should be held to the same standards as the NSA. It’s much creepier to think about “big brother watching” when it’s the government, but we should not allow Facebook and Google to know about our personal lives if we’re going to keep the government in the dark.
Maybe I’m naive, or maybe I just don’t do anything sketchy enough to really care about the government tracking my internet searches, but I see nothing wrong with the NSA having the capability to look into something if it seems like a national security issue. If Obama is telling the truth, the NSA cannot do anything to invade our privacy that big companies can’t do.
In a similar vein, should we allow corporations to know as much about us as they do? While it can be nice to see an advertisement for something I am actually interested in, it can be a problem sometimes. For instance, theteenage girl who got “Congrats on Your Pregnancy” coupons in the mail was probably not pleased that Target ended up breaking the news to her father before she could.
Then again, we live in an era of technology and interconnectedness. We might need to accept the fact that everything we put on the internet automatically becomes public domain. We shouldn’t buy things online and tweet about our feelings if we are worried about privacy.
If you don’t have time to watch President Obama’s full speech, check out this short YouTube video with the relevant clip.