Our presentation – Privacy Within a Networked Society

‘Every time you make a telephone call, purchase goods using a credit card, subscribe to a magazine, or pay your taxes, that information goes into a database somewhere. Furthermore, all these records can be linked so that they constitute in effect a single dossier on your life – not only your medical and financial history but also what you buy, where you travel, and whom you communicate with. It is almost impossible to learn the full extent of the files that various organisations keep on you, much less to assure their accuracy or to control who may gain access to them’ (David Chaum, Achieving Electronic Privacy, 1992) 

Working on this topic and developing my understanding on privacy, was extremely enjoyable as it effects my everyday life. My role within this group was to provide examples that the class would be able to participate in a discussion, based on that topic. I came up with the idea to allow my classmates to use sticky notes as a way of communication. They could share with use their personal relationship with their mobiles phones, by showing red ( really strongly relate) Yellow ( slightly relate) Red ( does not relate at all).

Based on previous seminars I had noticed a reluctancy in the class that effected the discussion, therefore I thought it was just as important to push a more relaxed performances for our presentation. This is the reason we decided to use the sticky notes.

Using my phone I started a convocation about the intense tracking that our phones monitor, how our phones know where we are at all times. I gave examples,  then voiced my personal worries on the lack of privacy i have been experiencing, with the new Google Pixel phone I purchased last month. Many people within the class agreed with these worries and gave examples or shared stories.

Some of my research also included finding futuristic technology. The Google glasses were a prefect example of this as they allowed us to  show the Pros and Cons in the way technology has become more invasive to our personal life.

As a team we worked effectively but there was a strong reflection in the lack of work others provided due to their absence or lack of input  for the seminar. I found this slightly frustrating as it was a fun topic and we could have developed our ideas more and elaborated if we had all participated more as a team rather than half leading the group. On a much more positive note the class seemed to enjoy our presentation and interacted a lot more than expected. I enjoyed this weeks challenges and really appreciated all the feedback sheets the class wrote out for us at the end.