They Know Your Personal Information

   

    Have you ever agreed to terms and conditions for something online without actually reading the conditions? Almost everyone does this on a regular basis without thinking twice because they believe nothing bad could possibly come of it. In reality, reading the terms and conditions for something online is critical to protecting your personal information. Using sites that have terms and conditions, usually leads to some sort of data collection. This is an issue we face in our daily lives as 6 out of 10 Americans believe they cannot go through their daily lives without having their data collected

    When online websites especially social media sites use our personal information it affects every person who uses those sites. This is an example of an adhesion contract which is where one party holds all of the negotiating power because when we use online sites we must abide by their rules without any say in the matter. This tracking of personal information is important to know because evidence of our actions online (like a digital footprint) stick around a long time (maybe forever) like a tattoo on our bodies. This evidence left behind can indicate some of our personal information and tendencies which invades each individual's right to privacy.

    The government currently monitors a lot of this personal information and data whether through outside sources such as social media sites or through their own methods such as highway monitoring and cell phone monitoring. This is the opposite of what the government should be doing because each person should have the right to privacy. The government should only data monitor when its time and scope are limited. With this idea, the only time the government should invade a person's privacy by monitoring their personal information should be in times where it is clear and obvious that it is to protect people from danger. Also, certain types of information should be off limits from the government no matter what such as medical and biometric information. And even after any information is used and observed, it should be permanently deleted.

    After knowing that our privacy is being invaded, we can come up with various ways to protect ourselves. First off, you can check all of the terms and conditions before signing up for a product or program to ensure everything follows your expectations. Second, you can make sure your communication methods are encrypted which most smart phones are nowadays, especially Apple products. Another useful method to protect your personal information is to use a fake email to receive spam messages and to sign up for various online programs. This makes sure your legitimate email stays safe from privacy concerns. Speaking of your email, you should sign out of your email when you are not using it to protect your personal information. Lastly, you always have the option to go in and change your privacy settings.