Over the
last four weeks, we have covered the topics of privacy and security, hackers,
freedom of information and speech and the digital divide. Tavani defines informational privacy as
privacy is defined as control over the flow of one’s personal information,
including the transfer and exchange of that information. In privacy and cyberspace, it made you realize
that no matter how many protection programs you have in place on your computer,
people can still get all the information about you they want. The government
can “sniff” and make sure what you are emailing is not a government threat. If
you look at a website and enter your email, it can be sold to millions of other
people to send you tons of junk mail. The idea of just looking at one item no
longer exists on the internet.
In the
article Anonymous, it tells us how one group can easily attack a group or
political person in just a few you tube videos. The endless streaming and back
and forth banter between the two groups, can possibly destroy one group while
gaining popularity for another.
Hacking is
another controversy and the counter hacking, was interesting. I could never
fight back against a hacker, but to know that other hackers do this almost
gives you a sense of revenge. When people hack into your information and take
it for there own personal gain is frustrating enough. Knowing that others can
fight back for you and return the “favor” and actually have moral grounds to
stand on, seemed a little double-edged.
Professional
code of conduct is something that I use each day at my job. We handle personal
health information each day. Our IT department places strong program security
programs in place to make sure nobody crashes the firewall and anti virus
programs to not only steal the information but could possibility use it to ruin
a person. Professional codes are put in
place to make sure that this does not happen. In the medial field, you have to
be willing to blow the whistle if you see someone using this information in the
wrong way. It would not be considered to me a moral responsibility but rather
professional, because we have to protect those who cannot protect themselves.
These last
four chapters made me realize that nothing I do on the computer is safe, I can
have all the protection I want and it does not even matter.
