EOTO 2: What I Learned

 

Whistleblower: A referee or coach? Definitely not... more like a person who reveals government secrets in order to inform the public about government conspiracies and lies. Whistleblowers have been an issue for the government for decades and have played a large part in creating the mistrust between the government and its citizens, especially in the United States. 

There are many famous whistleblowers such as Perry Fellwock, who revealed secrets of the ECHELON project under the disguise Winslow Peck, under The Guardian, a British newspaper. However, the 2 most famous whistleblowers in today's news are Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. 

Julian Assange, the man pictured above, is currently being held captive in the highest security clad prison in Britain after living in refuge at the Ecuadoran Embassy in London for a number of years. Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, was declared a threat to US national security by President Barack Obama in 2010 and other politicians have even described him as a terrorist. This declaration was in response to Wikileaks leakage of almost half a million confidential US Army intelligence documents about tactics and plans surrounding US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. By the end of the year, Assange and his followers had leaked about 250,000 US diplomatic cables which proved US involvement to be immoral in some Middle Eastern countries. The only reason these revelations are seen as a 'threat to national security' is because they are also a 'threat to the power of the US government', so Julian Assange is being illegally tried and kept in hostage for his freedom of speech. 

The US government is violating Julian Assange's First Amendment rights, going against all the values our Founding Fathers established when our country was created!

Edward Snowden, the man pictured above, is another famous, American whistleblower. As a former employee of the CIA and the NSA intelligence agencies, he gained lots of knowledge surrounding the United States security and privacy laws. When he started working for the NSA in 2009, he had access to tons of secret surveillance programs - most of which he despised; so, in 2013, Snowden traveled on Hong Kong on a 'medical leave of absence' to interview with journalists/reporters from The Guardian about his theories on the US government privacy policies. This interview revealed multiple breaches of privacy on US citizens, completed by the US government itself, including a court order for Verizon to share metadata of its consumers with the government and the existence of PRISM, a data-mining program that gives the NSA, FBI, and Britain's NSA equivalent access to Internet giants - including the Big 5 technological companies, such as Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook. On June 9th, Snowden came forward and revealed himself as the whistleblower, and on June 14th, the US government charged him with espionage (again, they legally cannot do this because that is violating Snowden's First Amendment, fundamental personal rights). Snowden fled to Moscow, Russia and is safely taken refuge there under 'temporary refuge status' thanks to Putin's not wanting to get involved in the US extradition process. Even in 2014 when his asylum contract ended, Putin awarded Snowden a three-year residence with the option to become an official Russian citizen. As of 2021, Edward Snowden is still hiding from the US government, who claim that he violated his disclosure agreement, under Russian refuge. 

Sources

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Snowden

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Julian-Assange

Presentation in class by Madelyn Cooper - Group 2

Are You Sure You Want To Keep Your Facebook Account?

 In the COM 1450 class, Media Law and Literacy, the common theme is our protection of free speech as professional (and even as unprofessional) communicators. As technology continues to advance everyday, that right to free speech becomes necessary for word of mouth, in writing, and online - among much more. Well, as PBS details in its documentary "Facebook Dilemma", new media platforms are making it harder and harder for people to freely express their ideals in safe, private spaces. 

Mark Zuckerberg, the entrepreneurial Harvard student, founded Facebook on February 4, 2004. Starting off as just a website for connections between people, Facebook has become one of the Big Five technological companies in the United States. Along with this fame and popularity comes greed - and that's exactly what happened. Mark Zuckerberg wanted "to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected", and in doing that, he gained offers from several companies for money upon money. As of March 3, 2021 in the current stock market, Facebook is worth 257.32 billion dollars, and is still growing everyday. 

However, do you know how Facebook makes all that money - especially since there's no price tag for consumers to download the app?

Well, according to the graph pictured above and other research studies, we can conclude that the majority of Facebook's revenue comes from selling users personal data to other companies. Yes, that's right... Facebook sells all your data, even if they promise its "private". Out of the Facebook users surveyed, 85% of surveyors were concerned that their private information was being sold; however, none of those people are deleting their accounts or doing anything about this illegal activity because they are addicted to social media. The most common companies that Facebook shares personal data with, are Amazon, Apple, Spotify, and other popular platforms. Facebook continues to deny these claims even though there is clear data suggesting this fraud, however, the company has acknowledged its damage from giving third parties' access to users' data after claiming that they had canceled those privileges. 

Multiple board members on media companies and other technology industry officials have commented on their distrust with Facebook and its employees. 

Damian Collins MP, chair of the UK Parliament's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee says, "We have to seriously challenge the claim by Facebook that they are no selling user data. They may not be letting people take it away by the bucket load, but they do reward companies with access to data that others are denied, if they place a high value on the business they do together. This is just another form of selling." Why do you think you always get advertisements for your favorite stores or restaurants on your feed? Where else does that information come from? If there are specific ads popping up in your social media platforms, then your personal data and browsing history has probably been sold to those companies from Facebook. Insane, right?!

It's terrifying that a 17 year old innovation, only a year or so younger than me, can have all the power that it has. If life was a movie, Facebook and its lack of privacy would definitely be the villain and his sidekick! For people of my generation, Generation X, we only use Facebook in order to keep older relatives up to date or for jobs and activity groups; so, how does this affect us? Facebook has grown so strong that it now owns Instagram, Snapchat, and other apps used daily by millennials, members of Generation X, and more generations coming in the future. Taking advantage of peoples' trust (or their stupidity from signing contracts by skimming) is completely unmoral from a ethics standpoint, and it also goes against the First Amendment by having the ability to censor users. 

So, the next time you unlock your phone and debate what to do with your time - I suggest playing a game instead of scanning through all your social media accounts. I know that's easier said than done, but it's scary to think that someone could be watching me type this blog right now. I'm definitely going to pay more attention to what I post or follow on social media now, and continue to NEVER ever post important information like my bank account or social security information. Nice try Zuckerberg, but we can see past your smart exterior and look directly at the greed inside.

            Sources

                   https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/facebook-dilemma/