Watch Dogs

1. This alternate reality game ties into your privacy and your online relationships with people. This website can show me who looks at my Facebook profile, who I care about, what makes me vulnerable and where I live. This website knows everything about me and it was so easy as me just logging into Facebook. Its amazing to think that your “private” information can be accessed so easily and that total strangers know more about me than my own friends and family. I believe that this can be very embarrassing to people’s personal lives because they now know who constantly looks at their profile and who constantly is keeping tabs on you. Honestly, if you are in a relationship this hinder it because if your significant other sees that you are looking at another girls profile constantly she will start to think you have feelings for her and can cause problems in the relationship. Also, this can be a little scary because what if one of your random facebook friends that you have no idea who they are are the ones looking at your profile and knowing all of your personal information. That will make me very hesitant to post anything on Facebook and potentially cause me to delete it permanently. 

2. I believe that there is a bigger, more powerful example of this or atleast there will be in the future. It would be stupid to think that this is the most powerful example and anyone can access it. The more powerful ones are the websites that only professional hackers have access too or even the government. They would never let us know how easily our information can be accessed and how susceptible we all currently are to this. There is information being stolen everyday from numerous people and we have no idea when or how it is happening. For example, look at heartbleed. That was going on for two years and no one even knew that it was going on. There is way more powerful things out there and it scary to think what will be out there in a couple more years. 

3. This shows that there is no longer any privacy. At the bottom of this website it says that every post, picture, email and purchase can be tracked and monitored against you. You expose so much information online that you don’t even realize. Any person can see who your best friends are, where you live, where you work and who you care about. If someone was trying to hurt you they can use this information by this website to do so. They can see where you live and who you care about which can cause them to target your loved ones. Also they can see what I am worth and how many transactions I make. I really thought that the banks were the only ones that can access that information but clearly I was wrong. There are numerous hackers nowadays that can hack into your personal files and know everything about you. If this information can get into the wrong hands it could be highly dangerous. People can steal your identity through a click of a button. The government needs to really crack down on their security on the internet and monitor these things to make sure that they limit the amount of people accessing information. It is unfair to these people that put their trust into the government and into the United States. It is their duty to protect these individuals. Nothing is safe anymore so people should be very careful about what they post. 

Do You know whos watching you?

Sousveveillance is different from the regular surveillance that we are used to in the United States. We are constantly surveilled wherever we are whether we are aware of it or not. When one posts pictures and or has pictures of them posted on the internet they become that much easier to track. A sequence of posts creates a digital paper trail allowing one to be easily followed. Through social media alone one can gather information on that particular person’s whereabouts, who they are with, and what they plan on doing next. Even though social media sights provide security measures to help protect information one must still consider the posts of those around them that people may use to circumvent those measures. Social media provides instant access to personal information with little to no resistance and proves to a be a useful tool in the field of surveillance.

With wearable technology, such as google glasses, there will undoubtedly be in increase in the crowd sourcing of surveillance. Tools of sousveveillance allow for the every day citizen to become a 24 hour surveillance tool. Groups involved with surveillance such as the NSA are responsible for an immense number of people. Crowd sourcing of surveillance will help distribute this responsibility. With advancements in technology like the google glasses the NSA could easily crowd source their more tedious jobs out into the public. The glasses will also provide better vantage points of surveillance than more conventional tools would as everything is scene from the view point of said person. An eye level camera that can directly be involved in action is more practical than the typical stationary cameras put in place today. In conclusion, crowd sourcing will result in and increase in manpower which directly results in the increase of surveillance productivity.

 

 

A Flat World

According to dictionary.com, Globalization is defined as the tendency of businesses, technologies, or philosophies to spread throughout the world, or the process of making this happen. The global economy is sometimes referred to as a globality, characterized as a totally interconnected marketplace, unhampered by time zones or national boundaries. The World is Flat by Thomas Friedman talks about globalization in the 21st century. He believed that there should be a level playing field for commerce which is what the title reiterates. He wants all companies to have an equal playing field amongst its competitors. Friedman believes that this can really help out the poor. It has pulled millions out of poverty in the countries of India and China. Also, it has multiplied the size of the middle class. People are no longer in that lower class because of this new business theory where everyone has a leveled playing field. The standard of living has never increased this fast in all of history. While it is increasing it is also supporting the growth of the population as well. Friedman estimated that the global economy was worth 7 trillion dollars in 1950. Over the past decade it has been equal to that even with the latest recession we have had in our economy. Thomas L. Friedman stated, “I define globalization as the inexorable integration of markets, transportation systems, and communication systems to a degree never witnessed before—in a way that is enabling corporations, countries, and individuals to reach around the world farther, faster, deeper, and cheaper than ever before, and in a way that is enabling the world to reach into corporations, countries, and individuals farther, faster, deeper, and cheaper than ever before. So he believes that globalization, if managed correctly can be the greatest thing to happen to this economy. A big positive in my opinion would have to be that consumers can buy merchandize from other countries for dirt cheap. There are countless websites that offer the same product that is sold in the US for half the price because they have outsourced workers. They pay their employees nothing so they do not have to jack up the prices to ridiculous levels. 

Along with the positives there are always some negatives and counter argument with peoples views. No one will ever completely agree with each other. A big negative about the way that he views globalization is that economies are too dependent on each other. If one economy falls the likelihood of another one falling increases dramatically. Millions of workers fear losing their jobs because companies are continuously working under competitive nature at which any point their business can go under and leave employees without jobs. Friedman views are all wrong though. He states that globalization and free markets go hand in hand when really they do not. He bases everything off of free markets but in reality we do not run free markets in our economy. The government is always coming up with a set of regulations and rules to stop the growth of a monopolistic economy. Its the survival of the fittest out in the world of business and globalization only works for the business superpowers out there. Capitalism is what America is and what America always will be. If you want to be somebody you need to work extremely hard to get there. Their are no hand outs in this world and if you are the little guy you will always remain the little guy unless you do it yourself. 

 

Cerni, P. (2012, October 8). Thomas Friedman’s Paean to Globalization ‘The Lexus and the Olive Tree’ Is Back, but We’ve Moved On | PopMatters. Retrieved from http://www.popmatters.com/review/163932-the-lexus-and-the-olive-tree-by-thomas-l.-friedman/

Manguina, R. (2010). Thomas Friedman on Globalization – Newsweek 2010. Retrieved from http://2010.newsweek.com/top-10/most-overblown-fears/globalization.html

Conditional and Control FLow Completed- Python

Digital Failures

There has been numerous times throughout history that there has been digital security failures. The biggest one that has recently happened is Heartbleed. According to the Straits Times, Heartbleed is a two-year programming flaw in something called OpenSSL, an open source consortium that builds and maintains a library of tools that essentially encrypt two-thirds of the Internet’s traffic. This means that a cyberintruder can access a computers cookies, passwords very easily. It makes the computer vulnerable to the theft of sensitive information. Knowing this, I feel that it is the responsibility of companies to report any failures in their security system. It is the ethically right thing to do because people can be getting there information stolen and they should be aware of this happening so they can be aware that all of their personal information is out on the web. The companies have a responsibility to its customers to deliver services to uphold the integrity of the company. If they were not to notify them that is how you lose many loyal customers resulting in the downfall of your company.

I believe that as a customer I have the right to know if my personal information has been accessed. This information is essential to the safety and security of my family. I am the protector of my family and if my personal emails, credit card information has been seen by a criminal that wants to steal it, I can be at a huge risk financially. There is a statistic that showed that there is on average 144 billion emails that everyday that is vulnerable to Heartbleed. That is a lot of information that you could have sent via email and it really is the responsibility of the company to tell you what has been stolen and what has not. I know it is a bad look for the company but it is what is morally right. Obviously your credit card information has to be accessed by the company so you can pay them, but if they find out that an intruder has accessed it and can use it to steal money from your account, it is their duty to come forward no matter how weak the company looks.

With all of this information that I have just found out about digital failures I am way less likely to shop online. My personal information is called PERSONAL for a reason and now that I know how easily it can be accessed by others I will refrain from shopping as long as possible. The fact that the government did not know about this flaw for two years really shows me how weak our government is and how easy it is to get things passed the government. If I desperately have to shop online I will but I will try to personally go to the store and buy it. I understand that we are not perfect and their is obviously ways to steal information from people but to know that the company would not tell the victims really frightens me. My information could be getting stolen as we speak and I would never know because the companies only care about their profits and not about the integrity of the company. For me to change my ways an shop online more their would have to be some major changes. I would want to automatically know by like a system that my information has been stolen and I would like compensation for what has been stolen. It is the companies fault that my information has been stolen so the least they can do is help the victims out. I feel that this is only going to get worse because the digital age is growing each year and with this information becoming public, people will not trust the internet anymore. I know the internet is very innovative and much easier to do things especially shop. People will have to become less lazy and go out and buy these products to prevent this from happening. The government will need more resources to prevent catastrophes like this happening again.

 

 

Fung, B. (2014, April). Heartbleed is about to get worse, and it will slow the Internet to a crawl. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2014/04/14/heartbleed-is-about-to-get-worse-and-it-will-slow-the-internet-to-a-crawl/
Straits Times (2014, April 17). What is Heartbleed and how it can steal information from you. Retrieved from http://www.straitstimes.com/news/opinion/more-opinion-stories/story/heartbleed-and-cyber-security-20140416

Illegal downloads

I personally believe that downloading music and movies online are a victimless crime because it is not like you are hurting anybody. There is so much more crime that should be focused on more than illegal downloading. I definitely can see why people can call it a big crime though. If you are downloading movies, books and music illegal you are taking copyrighted material without the owner allowing you to do so. It is ethically not the right thing to do because it is stealing. Even though this crime is not physically hurting someone such as rape, assault and abuse, it still is not the right thing to do. Countless people download things illegally every single day and they go without punishment. It was shown in 2008 that 95 percent of all music was illegally downloaded. That is a ridiculous number that needs to decrease drastically. A counter argument for this could be that the music, movie and book industry is a huge rip off to buy when it costs nearly nothing to make and is very expensive to buy. You will always have those people with morals that are afraid and don’t want to do anything illegal. You have those loyal fans that will always buy their favorite authors, musicians and actors movies but once the older generation dies out this illegal downloading will become an even bigger problem than it already is. The older generation does not really know how to download things illegally so they still buy the CDs and DVDs. With technology nowadays the younger generation can just plug the song, book title and movie into a website and instantly get the product without paying a single dollar. The government should start cracking down on this because it is killing this area of the economy.

Illegal downloading is the same exact thing as stealing. It is just like going into the store and stealing it. People are taking away from the sales of these products by illegally downloading them. I blame this on the government because they know that these websites are running and have the power to shut them down but they refuse to do so. I feel bad for the record companies, producers and publishers that put out these products because they don’t make all the money that they are supposed too. There revenue is without a doubt cut in half due to the fact of these illegal downloads. I think that there is a possible solution and if I were these companies I would really hope they take care of this. I don’t think that illegal downloads will ever stop and it will just keep getting worse as long as these websites keep running.

 

 

Adams, S. (2009, January 16). 95% of music downloads in 2008 were illegal – DiS reacts and suggests two solutions / Music News // Drowned In Sound. Retrieved from http://drownedinsound.com/news/4136081-95-of-music-downloads-in-2008-were-illegal-dis-reacts-and-suggests-two-solutions

Goessi, L. (2009, December 16). Illegal Downloading Victimless Crime by Leigh Goessl | Inside Technology 360. Retrieved from http://www.insidetechnology360.com/index.php/illegal-downloading-victimless-crime-20385/

Sebastian Thrun

I have recently been assigned to complete work on Code Academy. There is a section on this web site called python and this is where you practice computer coding. This is an example of Massive Open Online Courses(MOOC) and it has been a program that has evolved over the last couple of years. The internet has become an essential part of our everyday lives and to find an easier and more innovative way to teach our society is the smartest thing that we can do. These online courses are a good idea because some people are too lazy to attend school to learn these programs and also some people cannot afford to go to college. It is very important to learn how to use the internet because everything is becoming reliant on technology and if you learn how to use these programs it gives you a step up on the competition. You will have an advantage which will most likely result in the employer higher you and possibly with a higher salary. I personally believe that MOOCs are a good idea but they will not work for everyone. Many students will cheat on the assignments and not really learn the material. I am a better learner when I interact with the teacher and have the professor teach me how to use the program. When I have to learn something on my own by teaching myself it does not usually work out to well. Also, people will post all the answers online making it very easy to just search the right answers on google without even doing it themselves. I am a firm believer in this because kids will look for the easy way out. If they are offered the correct answers without doing work they will take it. Students only care about grades not about the information that they have retained. It is society’s fault we think that way because everything relies on the grades that you receive. Overall, I think that these interactive assignments are good to have as homework but for full course I think it will be counter productive. Kids learn best with interactive assignments but I am the type of student that needs to be told what to do by a superior. If I am not reminded in class about an assignment I will forget it and not complete it. 

Sebastian Thrun, founder of Udacity, attended Stanford University where he developed the belief that education should get rid of long lectures and participate in more active learning. He believes that learning this way will help students succeed not just in school but in life as well. He provided numerous online courses for students but decided that these courses were not effective for undergraduate students. He first believed that they have found the next best thing for higher education and that anyone can benefit from these courses. He recently has changed his perspective to that it is more for students that have a major in technology. Due to the high failures on his courses he realized it was not for everyone and that many students become easily distracted when they are not in class. Thrun really shifted his point of view from his high value on education to a man that has a CEO perspective and just cares about the amount of money he makes. I don’t blame in on what he recently said because I completely agree with him. He believed that it would benefit everyone but he learned from experience that it will not. I knew from the start that not everyone can benefit from online courses because there are numerous distractions when on the computer. You have social media sites and ITunes which can distract any student. 

 

 

Loucao, A. (2013, November 18). Sebastian Thrun: MOOCs Not Effective for Undergraduate Education After All… | online learning insights. Retrieved from http://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2013/11/18/sebastian-thrun-moocs-not-effective-for-undergraduate-education-after-all/

Udacity (2014, January). About Us – Udacity. Retrieved from https://www.udacity.com/us

Aaron Swartz

Aaron Swartz, founder of Reddit, was a computer programmer that attended Harvard University which he later decided to drop out. As a teenager Swartz developed code that made web files free for the public to use. Also, he helped create the tool that allowed users to subscribe to online information. Swartz was a genius and knew how to hack into many websites. He was caught breaching the website JSTOR and stealing numerous scholarly articles. He ended up downloading 4.8 million articles which is highly illegal due to the fact that you need to make an account and pay for certain articles on that website. Swartz was caught and arrested by the federal government and was charged with wire and computer fraud. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison and had to pay one million dollars worth of fines. the 26 year old was found dead by a controversial suicide. Swartz was found by his friend and the cause of death was that he hung himself. It was known in an interview that he struggled with severe depression and has had suicidal thoughts. I believe that the sentencing pushed him over the top. Some can say that he was killed by the government but I believe that our government would not do something like that. He already was caught and forced to pay fines and serve jail time, what would be the reasoning for murdering this young man? I believe in what Swartz was doing for our country because he wanted to allow access to everything on the internet. All these laws are just a way for companies to make money and it is hindering our development as a country. People should be able to share information because if it is on the World Wide Web it is for the public to use. 

The intellectual property law uses patents, trademarks, and copyrights to protect owners of property. What Aaron Swartz did showed us that even with these laws to protect our property you really are never safe. He was easily able to hack the system so that shows a weakness in our government. Who knows how many other people have been doing this just havent been getting caught. I feel that he was caught because he stole such a large quantity of articles from JSTOR. I still think that the United States should revise this IP law because information on the internet deserves to be shared because it will make our society a better place to live in. The internet is going to keep growing and is becoming a huge part of our society, it is only right that we allow information to be shared freely on the web. 

 

1. American Intellectual Property Association (2012). What is IP Law? Retrieved from http://www.aipla.org/about/iplaw/Pages/default.aspx

2. Schwartz, J. (2013, January 12). Aaron Swartz, Internet Activist, Dies at 26 – NYTimes.com. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/technology/aaron-swartz-internet-activist-dies-at-26.html?_r=0

part 2 of codeacademy

blog 7- Privacy

I am firm believer that privacy has been exploited over the last couple years. The government can get surveillance and they can monitor almost anything through technology. No one is safe anymore because they can tap your phones and computers. They can tap cameras that are located all over the world and see what is happening and when it is happening. I think that all of your personal information should be kept private. Your bank accounts, telephone records and anything involving your personal life. The government can listen to your conversations when you are not even talking on it. It is amazing how much technology improved over the years and I am worried about how much more it will improve over the next several decades. I think that the most invasive thing the government can do is bugging another persons house. They can hear and see everything that you are doing 24/7. I only think that the government should be able to monitor others when they have probable cause. If the person is suspected of a crime or needs to be closely watched because they have real evidence that links them to illegal activity. 

Social media has become such an important part in peoples lives that they will pretty much post anything on the internet. My logic is that if you do not want your job or the government to see it then do not post it on the internet it is that simple. People care so much about their social lives that they want to make it look like they are having the best time in the world but in the long run it will just hurt you. I understand that pictures create memories and are fun to look back on but you do not need to post them on social media sites for the whole general public to see. I believe that companies and corporations have the right to look at all the published information on the internet but I really do not believe that it should effect whether you get the job or not. What is the big deal if you see a potential employee drinking underage? If the CEOs and managers are that naive to think that kids in college do not drink underage then I would not want to work for them. I know it is kind of a bad look for a company but what are really the consequences? If the employee can perform the job than it should not matter if there is a picture of them drinking on the internet. Also, there are numerous ways to protect yourself from companies viewing your profile. You can put it on private or you can just not post pictures of things that you do not want people to see. It is that simple.