"There's a guy at the door with flowers for you, says he found you on Facebook": My concerns about Internet Privacy

Privacy is something everyone is entitled to no matter who they are. Privacy is me wanting to be alone in my room, without my roommate, watching what i want on TV, painting my nails on my bed, and chatting with my friend on the phone about my horrendous Saturday night i would love to forget. Private, deriving from privacy is something that is meant to be known only to the person that is doing the private act, or aware of their private information, such as chatting with a boyfriend, or your credit card account number. Whether or not someone can prevent their privacy being invaded by someone else, is the problem at hand. The Internet is a large community that involves money transactions with account information, personal thoughts or beliefs, personal information,peoples' personal health issues and much more information on any human being that is putting it out there, usually unknowingly, for anyone to see.
Some of the biggest privacy problems posed by the Internet are that just about anyone, with the right directions can hack into almost anyone's Internet history, and one of the biggest problems of all is that we, as a society have absolutely no problem feeding these hackers our personal information, things we would not even tell a best friend, or family member in some cases. With everything from Webshots Community, to Myspace, where you don't need to be a member to see someones homepage, hackers or anyone who doesn't even have necessarily bad intentions can get images of us and personal information from hobbies, to our own birthdays. In "Privacy Lost: Does anybody care?", Bob Sullivan makes these privacy issues clear. "The digital bread crumbs you leave everywhere make it easy for strangers to reconstruct who you are, where you are and what you like. In some cases, a simple Google search can reveal what you think. Like it or not, increasingly we live in a world where you simply cannot keep a secret ("Privacy Lost: Does anybody care?" Sullivan).
I've always thought that the Internet was a little shady in the privacy department, but for some reason I never really gave it any though until this posting. What the hell was I thinking??? There is absolutely no privacy on the Internet, even secured pages I'm sure, can be hacked into. I worry about my Internet privacy, and most importantly with my 5 year old membership to Webshots Community. I made an album on Webshots 5 years ago, and haven't updated it since. I use to post it in my AIM profile so that my friends could just click on a link, and there they were, no password needed to view my public albums. After the pictures got old, new styles were in, and I realized that hair cut I had sophomore year of high school was hideous, I removed the link from my profile, so that no one could see those pictures. To this day, I swear, I STILL get e-mails in my Hotmail account confirming "34 new views of your webshot albums this week". CREEPY!!! I KNOW that my friends aren't looking at these pictures, I don't have the link available for them anymore and I know that my "spaced out" friends would never remember the link address to get to them. So this means, anyone, ANYONE, can be looking at my pictures, old men in their underwear sitting behind the screen, or 10 year old children looking at me funneling a beer. Why don't I just delete my account? That is a good idea, and in fact I am on the website now, doing JUST that, I never took the time to actually think that my pictures of me in my own home doing whatever with my friends is available to anyone on the Internet, anywhere in the world. So is there really "Internet privacy"? Well, according to Wikipedia's article on the matter, they provide the following statements, "Experts in the field of Internet privacy have a consensus that Internet privacy does not really exist" ("Internet Privacy" Wikipedia). Well holy Internet, aren't we all in trouble then?
Privacyrights.org make a clear and true point, "But with acceptance comes a decrease in skepticism. You may assume that the same laws or societal rules that protect your privacy in the physical world apply to the digital world as well. But the Internet remains largely unregulated and the policies governing it underdeveloped. As you continue to embrace the technology it is important to be aware that in many ways it is still uncharted territory" (Privacyrights.org "Privacy in Cyberspace"). This is exactly the case with me, right off the bat of my Internet journey I felt completely at ease, and very secure in my actions on the web. But now, I am older than when I started using the Internet. I make transactions, I have online banking, and I have a Facebook and Myspace account. I need to make sure that I am not putting my whole self out there, because after all, what will i have left of myself to keep private? The Internet is slowly devaluing people's privacy. Just like I don't like someone down the hall barging into my room when I am doing COM 125 homework, or on the phone with my mother talking about a weird rash (humor), I don't want someone hacking into my account history on store websites, or using information they found on me from myspace to locate where I live. Internet Privacy. It's a bitch.


"Internet Privacy." Wikipedia. 11 Feb. 2007. Wikipedia. 15 Feb. 2007 .

"Privacy in Cyberspace." Privacy Rights Clearing House. Oct. 2006. Privacy Rights Clearing House. 15 Feb. 2007 .

Sullivan, Bob. "Privacy Lost: Does Anybody Care Anymore?" MSNBC.Com. 17 Oct. 2006. Technology Correspondent. 15 Feb. 2007 .

COM 125 Week 4: You Get What You Give

"Gift Economy", although sounding like a term you should study for your next economics exam, a gift economy is something almost everyone takes part in. One gift economy I take part in would have to be Wikipedia. Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that offers free information and definitions on any kind of topic you could think of. In fact Wikipedia.org provides a definition of exactly what it practices, free software, as, "Free software...is software which can be used, copied, studied, modified and redistributed with little or no restriction beyond the requirement that source code must be made available It is on the web to help people, and is not asking for anything in return" (Wikipedia.org Free Software Foundation "Free Software"). Wikipedia has been there for me whenever I had to write papers, give presentations, or just wanted to learn about something in a simple, clear definition. Frequently updated and ever-changing, this website accomadates to our fastly-growing generation. Not many encyclopedias can you search the term "P-Diddy" and "World War I" in the same one. Although I can't physically give Wikipedia.org a "gift" back, I can acknowledge its helpfulness in my papers, and i often refer people to the popular website for help, given they haven't heard of it, which would be unlikely.
In Peter Kollock's, "The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace", he states that, "The relative or absolute anonymity of the recipient makes it all the more remarkable that individuals volunteer valuable information – one cannot realistically count on the reciprocity of the recipient in the future to balance the gift that has occurred." The former quote is making a point to how amazing it is that these people who work for Wikipedia.org are doing all this hard work, of constantly updating their website and handing out free information for nothing in return. I think in interent gift economnies, one is not as pressured to reciprocate a gift to a giver, than they are in friendship, or relational gift economies. The fact that the giver is unknown, and not known on a close, personal level, makes their giving of the information in their encyclopedia less attached to an actual human being, therefore the millions of college students who use their website aren't able to always reciprocate. Even my posting on this topic, on my blog is another example of a gift economy i take part in. Richard Barbook, put it simply when he commented on blogging as a new form of gift economy saying, "When I was writing The Hi-Tech Gift Economy, the open source movement was the iconic example of non-commercial production over the Net. In the intervening period, blogging has become the public face of this new way of working. What was once the preserve of a small minority is now a mass phenomenon" (Barbook, The Hi-Tech Gift Economy).
Gift economies are a common practice on the internet, and in our day-to-day lives. I belive that gift economies that offer free software such as, Wikipedia.org, or Blogger.com, are great ways to help people out who need information fast. One good thing about the internet is that is it always changing, and updating to be the most recent version that correlates to the present day, and that's why Wikipedia.org is more helpful than an old, dusty, encyclopedia I would have to travel to the library to get. I personally feel that Wikipedia.org is one of the best free software agents out there. It is well known, and covers so many terms, it also offers different languages for people from different language speaking regions.

Barbook, Richard. "The Hi-Tech Economy." First Monday. 1998. 9 Feb. 2007 .


"Free Software." Wikipedia.Org. 3 Feb. 2007. Wikipedia. 9 Feb. 2007 .

Kollock, Peter. "The Economies of Online Cooperation:." 1999. University of California, Los Angeles. 9 Feb. 2007 .

Imesh with Morpheus Everyday.

Copyright infringement, as bad as it is, is quite common, and sometimes hard to avoid. In fact, I could probably be breaking some law right now that I don’t even know by writing this post. One of the most common copyright violations on college campuses is the sharing of music or video files. Quite often I will hear about a new program that can download these media files, and is much faster and convenient than the last, but most importantly, they are FREE. Some of the most popular programs have been: Imesh, Limewire, Morpheus, and the ever popular, Napster.
I personally believe that the illegal downloading of music files is not wrong. The main reason it is viewed as wrong is because of the obvious- we’re “stealing” artists’ music right from under them. The free downloading of music is hurting the record sales for many, but honestly, what are these artists complaining about? Music artists are so endowed with money, and obscene opportunities to make money these days that what is a couple of record sales going to do to them? Artists are everywhere now-a-days. They are in commercials, advertisements, movies, television shows, and commercials. They have many other cash flows coming in. I personally believe that the downloading of music should be continued as long as it is being made. Also, with the advancement of such technology as the “Ipod”, who wants to be buying CD albums anymore? No one wants to.
In, “The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales: An Empirical Analysis”, it is mentioned that file sharing of music is now one of the most common online activities. Because of the decreased numbers in sales, the recording industries went as far as suing some unlucky kids (Strumpf, Oberholzer-Gee, The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales). In Kevin Brady’s, “Copyright FAQ: 25 Common Myths and Misconceptions”, he mentions that you only have to download one copyrighted file to be able to be sued by the RIAA, or the Recording Industry Association of America (Brady Copyright FAQ.).
I believe that if anything, the availability to download music introduces people to many artists they would have never listened to in the first place, had it not been recommended by their best friend, or roommate. I think that yes, while these sale numbers are decreasing, the popularity of some unknown, underground artists is increasing.
Because it is so easy to download music, it is going to continue to happen. “Whatsthedownload.com”, a website devoted to music, explained just how easy it is to download music, and why it’s not hurting our computers. “MP3 is a technology that makes music files very small. This compression lets us download a song in only seconds, or minutes, instead of hours. Because the files aren’t big, we can store hundreds of songs on our computers without filling up our hard drives. Thanks to new technology, MP3 files can now be played on devices other than our computers, such as portable MP3 players, and even cell phones" (whatsthedownload.com The Recording Academy). These facts make it clear: With the growing of technology, record sales are going to decrease. It is just the way it works. No one uses record players anymore, so they moved to CD'S. Everyone is guilty of downloading music, so maybe one day CD'S will be pulled from the racks as well.
Maybe record companies could collaborate with the music sharing industry so that so many downloads of a certain artist could still be supporting their net income from their music. I am not sure how this would even work out, but I really don't see free music sharing being abolished entirely any time soon. For example, Morpheus and the representatives for many popular artists could come together to make a deal where after so many downloads of a song or artist, the file sharing program gives the artist money. After all, it is the artists that are keeping the file sharing industry thriving with business.

The revolution of the MP3 file and the programs that allow us to download music was a great invention because it allows us to have music for free. It brings people together through music, and in the end, it’s no big deal, that whiny artist will still get a big paycheck.

Brady, Kevin. "Copyright FAQ: 25 Common Myths and Misconceptions." 2007. 1 Feb. 2007 https://ublearns.buffalo.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_39998_1.

Oberholzer, Felix, and Koleman Strumpf. "The Effects of File Sharing on Record Sales." June 2005. 1 Feb. 2007 .

"What's the Controversy." What's the Download? The Recording Industry. 1 Feb. 2007 .