I did some searching to see how much information I could find on myself. The first thing I did was a street view of my house to see if it had our cars or personal decorations in it. The image had not been updated since 2012 so it wasn’t current, but I could see the previous owners cars and such on it. Secondly, I did a GIS search in Spotsy county, also for my house. They’ve got a public parcel viewer similar to the one I viewed in the lecture video. It was 100% accurate except for the fact that my wife’s name on the property had her maiden name. But I could see the school districts, house value, and when we purchased this house. Third, I used FamilyTreeNow.com and did a search on myself. This also provided correct information on myself and linked it to all of my family members and my wife’s info and family members. So needless to say, my information was very easy to find with a couple of key search factors.
Privacy is something I value. After being married, I seldom shared any wedding photos. My son is due in a couple of weeks and we JUST announced online that we are having a child. I honestly don’t plan on announcing when he’s born at all and my wife agrees. It’s evident that even though we try to keep things private, there are other aspects I didn’t think of that people could find on me/us if they wanted to. When I first started using Facebook, I was friends with a lot of strangers. I erased it and only added friends and relatives to my new account who I actually talk to or see frequently. I still prefer to keep things to myself though, despite that. When it comes to exam proctoring, I can see why someone would want to be able to observe your surroundings in order to detect cheating. In a home situation, I disagree with it, but I can understand it. You know when your test is, so move anything you don’t want the camera to see out of the way. I’ve adjusted to the fact that I must constantly share my surroundings on screen for work, and I make sure that whatever is going to be on screen is something I am comfortable sharing. Although digital technology greatly reduces our privacy, I think it is still essential. The list of reasons why it is beneficial for everything to be tracked goes on and on, including the ability to follow family members in case of emergencies and find our phones in case they are lost. Although it’s strange to consider that someone or something is constantly keeping an eye on us, it has become more common in modern society and, in my opinion, won’t be a problem or a hot topic in the years to come.
