The Beginning

It’s very hard to see the changes happening around you that are happening right now. However, if you were to step back a few years, change is very apparent. We can see this in old photos, videos, and mort all types of media. This is also true for the internet especially when it comes to privacy. Destin from SmarterEveryDay, explains this concept in a very simple way. He claims it's like putting a frog in a boiling pot of water. If you do this the frog will realize the water is too hot and try to get out. However, if you were to put a frog into lukewarm water and heat it up, the frog won’t realize what happening and it will cook itself. In this analogy, we are the frogs, and the pot of water is the internet (Privacy). Why is being on the internet so invasive to your privacy? To answer this, we need to go to the beginning to where it all started.

As we make find new ways to communicate, we also find ways to record and store that information. Wiretapping is a great example of this. This was at first mostly used for investigation purposes, but it quickly got out of hand to where people and police were listening to peoples’ private conversations for their own amusement. This is also true for when the internet first came out. People found ways to record and store information about stuff happening online. Around this time big tech companies such as Google, Facebook, and Apple. These companies offer us services in exchange for our data. This is what is making the internet run. We provide our data to companies so they can profit from it. We may not pay Facebook physical money to use their services, which begs the question who do they make their money then? Well in a company that has no clear business plan or a visible way that company can stay in business, you are the product. They sell your information to advertising agencies and even the government without you even knowing. You don’t own your data if you use those services. As time goes on, they gather more ways to get your data and it doesn’t even need to be data you knowingly give to them or data you need to use the service. This can be GPS location, who you are with, how long you spend looking at things on your phone. (Privacy)

Now you may be able to see how we are the frogs, and we are boiling ourselves. Something needs to happen if this is going to change. If this interests you in any way, I would highly encourage you to watch Destin’s video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMtrY6lbjcY

He goes I bit more in-depth than I have here and has provided ways to fight back against this issue.

"Is Your Privacy An Illusion? (Taking on Big Tech) - Smarter Every Day 263." YouTube, YouTube, www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMtrY6lbjcY.