Blog #2- Privacy

    Privacy on the internet has always been a big deal for me and my family. My parents would not allow me to use social media until I was a teenager because of everything they had heard on the news about the privacy issues that come with being active on social media. Privacy has always affected me on social media because in our generation it is normal to share everything about your life on the internet. Things like this have led to me having my accounts get hacked and having my personal information shared to strangers on the internet. One way privacy involving social media and the internet has affected my family is we will talk about something and then later on be seeing ads for it on social media.

    The government has a lot of power to fix many privacy issues that occur online and on social media, although it does not seem like they are taking the right steps to do so. One thing I think the government should do is place more restrictions on what people can post and have more age limits set on certain social media apps. Another thing I think the government could do is to be more strict about what different websites and companies are allowed to do with the information they gather from their users. Finally, after watching a TED Talk about what law enforcement is allowed to do with our personal information, I feel that the government needs to be more strict with them and not allow them to be above everyone else just because they are a part of law enforcement.

    One thing we can all do to help maintain more privacy in our lives is whenever you are finished using the internet, whether it be on a phone or laptop would be to clear your search history your web browser. Another thing we can all do is when a website asks you to "accept all cookies", be sure to select no and that will immensely improve the privacy you have. Finally, after watching another TED Talk, I learned we can all try completely shutting down our phone when we are not using it because this prevents from any listening in it may do to your conversations and where you go.