Who is Edward Snowden and why is he infamous? (Cite your source(s), please)
Edward Snowden is a former National Security Agency (N.S.A) employee who turned and became the whistle-blower of NSA’s illegal ‘data mining’ activities without necessary court orders or individual consents ( Dance & MacAskill, 2013 ). He is compared to other infamous whistleblowers like Daniel Ellsberg who leaked the Pentagon Papers and Mark Felt of the Watergate scandals leaks. He is infamous since he gave up his livelihood, job, and forever will face public scrutiny for his actions of releasing information with details of how the NSA breaches the American privacy (Rice, 2015).
How or where do you share personal information (everyone does somewhere/in some way)? Note at least two places or ways you do this. How does it make you feel?
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One of the places I share personal information is on a social media site, for example, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The information shared includes personal pictures, cell phone number, personal address, birth date, school name, user’s name, email, and even age ( Madden et al., 2013 ). Another area is when I am required to provide personal information such as email, phone number, and name to access coupons ( Gredler, 2015 ). With the recent increase of cases of identity theft, I feel insecure when required to share my personal information on social media sites as well as when collecting coupons (Allan, 2014) .
Who was Jeremy Bentham? (The real person.)
Jeremy Bentham, who lived between 1748 and 1832, is a renowned English Philosopher, political reformer, and jurist whose work is considered the basis of modern utilitarian practice. (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2017).
Who was George Orwell and when was his novel 1984 published?
George Orwell (1903-1950), whose birth name is Eric Arthur Blir, was a critic, essayist, and novelist mostly recognized by his two masterpiece novels ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ and ‘Animal Farm’ as well as his strong opinion on political movements of the time such as communism, fascism, and imperialism. His last dystopian novel ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four,’ which was later published as 1984, was published in June 1949 (Biogaphy.com Editors, 2014).
Do you agree with what Eric Schmidt (CEO of Google) said about how Google invades the privacy of the masses? Why or Why not?
I disagree with the CEO of Google on his statement concerning Google’s invasion of personal privacy. His statement indicates that though the company claims to care about its user’s privacy, it is not concerned enough to understand the simple reasons why to some extends people would like protection against some embarrassments as well as the preservation of their freedom and human rights. ( Esguerra, 2009 )
How did Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg act to ensure his residential privacy? Based on that, do you think he believes what HE said about how privacy isn’t “a social norm?”
In 2010, Facebook CEO and founder, Mark Zuckerberg, contrary to his notion that confidentiality is no longer a social norm, bought his house together with adjacent four houses in Palo Alto terming it as a way to ensure they enjoyed privacy. Therefore, his actions show that he does not believe his statement ("Glenn Greenwald: Why privacy matters", 2017; Kiley, 2014).
How do people’s “actions negate” the claim that they have nothing to hide? Give an example from Greenwald’s speech. Do you agree? Why or why not?
As Greenwald states in the film, people don’t live to keep their word concerning privacy. Despite most relenting that they have nothing to hide, none is ready to share their emails, social security numbers, and passwords so that someone can snoop around their accounts ( McClure, Ha & May, 2014; Raz, 2015 ). For instance, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, in an interview said that people should stop doing something they feel the public should not know. But later when the CEO’s personal information was published in a CNET’s article ‘Google balances privacy,’ a companywide directive to cut communication with the internet magazine was given thus showing the importance of privacy. ( "Why Privacy Matters – Glenn Greenwald transcript," 2018; Crawford, 2014 )
What did Jeremy Bentham invent related to real (and implied) surveillance? Do you agree that the belief you are being watched makes you tend to be more obedient or well-behaved? Why or why not?
Jeremy Bentham devised an architectural design known as the panopticon that could be used for surveillance. Science and Literature have repeatedly proven that when we are watched our behavior tends to change. (Gao, 2014). That is, persons always change their behavior the moment they realize they are being watched. In this way, they try to adhere to the social norms and stay within the boundaries they are expected to obey to avoid either condemnation or shame (Meeren, 2016).
How would you feel if you were (or could be) monitored 24/7? What would you do if you found out you were and you were unaware that it was going on?
As Miles (2014) notes, being monitored 24/7 is a total violation of personal space. I would feel that they are restricting my independence. This will make me feel conscious, stay cautious, as well as question every action I take on a daily basis.
In Orwell’s novel 1984, how did the author address the lack of privacy in this “future?”
In his novel 1984, George Orwell addresses a world whose inhabitants face surveillance on a daily basis. Particularly, he uses the phrase ‘Big Brother’ to represent the government that is constantly observing and scrutinizing its residents. The phrase has come to represent the government’s abuse of civil rights and liberties through mass surveillance ( Frank, 2018 ). People have given up their right to privacy out of fear. Orwell notes that it is more concerned with lack of knowledge that you are being watched which leads to a presumption that someone is being watched (Gao, 2014).
What is the “measure of how free a society is,” according to Greenwald?
According to Greenwald, t he true measure of how free society entails the way those who dissent are treated, but not by individuals who desist from engaging in significant dissent and activism against the government (Greenwald, 2017)
“ He who does not move does not notice his chains.” (Rosa Luxemburg). What does this mean regarding privacy?
Rosa Luxemburg's quote “h e who does not move, does not notice his chains” implies that as much as someone put efforts and make the chains of mass observation and scrutiny unseen and imperceptible, its restrictions on the populace does not become any less potent ( "Why Privacy Matters – Glenn Greenwald transcript", 2018 )
References
Allan, P. (2014). Why Your Privacy Matters, Even If You're Not "Doing Anything Wrong." Retrieved from https://lifehacker.com/why-your-privacy-matters-even-if-youre-not-doing-anyt-1645884650
Biogaphy.com Editors. (2014). George Orwell Biography. Retrieved from https://www.biography.com/people/george-orwell-9429833
Crawford, D. (2014). Glenn Greenwald: Why privacy matters. Retrieved from https://www.bestvpn.com/privacy-news/glenn-greenwald-privacy-matters/
Dance, G., & MacAskill, E. (2013). NSA files decoded: Edward Snowden's surveillance revelations explained. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/nov/01/snowden-nsa-files-surveillance-revelations-decoded#section/1
Esguerra, R. (2009). Google CEO Eric Schmidt Dismisses the Importance of Privacy. Retrieved from https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/12/google-ceo-eric-schmidt-dismisses-privacy
Frank, N. (2018). Similarities in the Surveillance Presented in Orwell’s 1984 Compared to the Present Day and Beyond. Retrieved from https://soapboxie.com/misc/Similarities-in-the-Surveillance-Presented-in-Orwells-1984-Compared-to-the-Present-Day-and-Beyond
Gao, K. (2014). Notes from the best of 100+ TED talks. Retrieved from http://www.kevinhabits.com/ted/
Glenn Greenwald: Why privacy matters. (2017). Retrieved from https://myopinionsmatterblog.wordpress.com/2017/07/01/glenn-greenwald-why-privacy-matters/
Gredler, C. (2015). The Implications of Sharing Personal Data. Retrieved from https://www.csid.com/2015/01/implications-sharing-personal-data/
Greenwald, G. (2017). Laptop Seizures by US Government Highlight 9/11-Era Climate of Fear. Retrieved from http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33229.htm
Kiley, B. (2014). Glenn Greenwald's New TED Talk on Why Privacy Matters. Retrieved from https://www.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/10/15/glenn-greenwalds-new-ted-talk-on-why-privacy-matters
Madden, M., Smith, A., Duggan, M., Beaton, M., Gasser, U., Cortesi, S., & Lenhart, A. (2013). Part 2: Information Sharing, Friending, and Privacy Settings on Social Media. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/05/21/part-2-information-sharing-friending-and-privacy-settings-on-social-media/
McClure, L., Ha, T., & May, K. (2014). Why privacy matters: Glenn Greenwald at TEDGlobal 2014. Retrieved from https://blog.ted.com/why-privacy-matters-glenn-greenwald-at-tedglobal-2014/
Meeren, C. (2016). Summary and review of "No Place to Hide" by Glenn Greenwald — Relativistic Ramblings. Retrieved from https://www.relativisticramblings.com/books/no-place-hide-review/
Miles, K. (2014). Glenn Greenwald Explains Why Privacy Is Vital, Even If You 'Have Nothing To Hide'. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/20/glenn-Greenwald-privacy_n_5509704.html
Rice, R. (2015). Resisting NSA Surveillance: Glenn Greenwald and the public sphere debate about privacy.
Raz, G. (2015). Why Should We Care About Keeping Secrets?. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=377716623
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2017). Jeremy Bentham (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bentham/
TED. (2014). Glenn Greenwald: Why privacy matters. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcSlowAhvUk
Why Privacy Matters – Glenn Greenwald transcript. (2018). Retrieved from https://is.cuni.cz/studium/predmety/index.php?do=download&did=107366&kod=JMM075
