The government is reading this. They can hear your thoughts; they have hidden microphones in all American homes. They track your every move. They’ve been doing this for decades…
Some people actually believe this, even though the closest thing to truth in these lines is that all Internet traffic passes through government systems. That’s a lot of data, and the vast majority of it is not even actually read. Google and Facebook know more about you than the government, and many find that unsettling. (Especially when companies are so willing to turn data over to the government.) It’s not as bad as those in tinfoil hats make it sound. Still, we do not have as much privacy as we once did, and that’s the topic this week.
We begin the episode with two simple questions:
- In your house growing up, were doors and windows open or closed?
- How about now?
The need for privacy, or even a feeling of privacy, differs from person to person. Find out how much privacy we feel like we need in the physical world. What things do we need absolute privacy to do? (The episode kind of degrades into poop talk, here.)
But back to privacy. With the rise of the Internet, is privacy eroding or going away entirely? Is that a good or bad thing? Is anything one puts online fair game for the general public? Many people go to great lengths maintaining a physical persona and an online persona. Find out if there’s a big difference in what we share in real life vs. what we’re comfortable sharing online.
Conspiracy theorist or not, the NSA monitors phone calls, text messages, and email. Find out if it bothers us that the government is invading our privacy. Find out if Google, Apple, and Facebook tracking as much as they can about people bothers us.
After that, we move on to where the line is crossed when it comes to the government or companies going too far in needing to know our personal information. Have we crossed that line yet?
We wrap the episode up with this question: What’s the future of privacy — both online and in the real world?
As always, feel free to chime in about privacy in the comments below. The government and Google already know your thoughts — there’s nothing to hide…
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I’m kind of resigned about the digital privacy issue. I don’t agree with the relentless invasion of privacy, simply because it’s an abuse of power, but I more or less accept it.
“Shawn time” yep, I agree. Those 2 specific outputs require privacy. lol
Hmm… offline CM is more guarded than online CM. Just about every nuance of my personality is laid bare between my G+ and my blog. 🙂
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OK here’s my deepest “secret,” exposed here on this podcast post. From the time I was about 10 to about 13, I *KNEW* I was going to kill somebody. It was inevitable. Just a matter of time. I even wrote a “confirmation” of this knowledge on a piece of paper. I had one of those hair brushes that had the bristle part slide out of the handle, and I slipped the folded paper in the brush. I can see now that it was a coping mechanism. Of course I grew out of it… kind of. Now I just kill the characters in my books. 🙂
Yeah, I’m not pleased with the invasion of privacy where the government is involved, but at the same time, I more or less accept it as well. I can’t let myself slide into crazytown and imagine them listening to us all. Digital traffic all goes through their systems, but they aren’t listening to it all. Enough keyword hits…and yeah, they listen, but the reality is we’re not going to stop it and they aren’t going to come for us all, no matter what those holed up on the outskirts say.
Where I don’t like the invasion of privacy is the thought of GPS tracking and an insurance company saying, “You drive this many miles — we are upping your billing,” or, “We see you post about drinking on Facebook and we’re raising your rates, even though there’s nothing to indicate you actually get drunk or even behind the wheel…”
When I was 13, I had a plan regarding those who picked on me in school. Obviously, never followed through on it, but — while I will never agree with a school shooting, even in the case of actual bullying — I understand it.
I used to hide messages in my sister’s brush like that…totally written in what I thought was “spooky” handwriting that wouldn’t be traced to me. Making it sound like demons and ghosts were leaving her messages, but she never found them.
You hid a piece of paper in one of these brushes too?? OK now it’s getting weird. Have you noticed how similar we are in history, experiences, interests, attitudes, etc? I could make a list, it would take too long. lol Or maybe I’m imagining it? I’ll throw out a few more specific incidentals to see if they match up.
Hard to think of things which haven’t already been mentioned.
1. I really wanted a Shetland pony as a kid. So glad I didn’t get one.
2. My first pet was a bird. I named it Twinkletoes.
3. I never believed Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, etc were real.
4. Before I learned to read, I thought adults were just pretending that written words meant something.
5. I LOVE the smell of gasoline and PVC. It’s like a drug.
I caught on to the whole Santa and stuff being fake, but believed if I DIDN’T believe…that I’d get no gifts. So I was all about Santa and other made-up things connected to gifts, money, and candy.
And I’m with you on the smell of gasoline! PVC…I can see that. And, unless they are right there, the smell of skunks is strangely pleasant to me.
It reminds me of the episode of Rick and Morty where Morty has an alien child who wants to destroy everyone in the world, and the creator of a very tame comic strip tells him to become a creative instead, because that’s the only way *he’s* been able to keep the voices in his head at bay.
So, yeah, I pretty much had the same feeling when I was young. 😉
OK the person I *KNEW* I was going to off was my mom. She and I were constantly at war during my preteens, horrible stuff, and I “knew” one day she would push me over the edge, and I accepted it. I’m relieved things didn’t work out, so to speak.