Some of the reading for this week mention dual nature of technology. Many people think technology make the world better, but it can be threat. Like McGovern said, "technology is neutral". Since technology has developed rapidly and has huge influence on society, it will be a nightmare if government misuse technology.
It reminds me two stories related to technology and government. The first story is about USA PATRIOT act. It was established after 9/11 and gave the US government the right to access private information. The government can gain the information about what we searched, what we clicked, what we sent by e-mail, etc. Such records remain on Internet service providers or search engines such as Google. It was established to prevent terrorism, but the government can abuse its power, so the privacy issue became a big concern.
The second story is about Google and the Chinese government. Since China is big market and the government demand to eliminate some Web sites, which are adverse to its interest, from the search results, Google accepted the censorship of its search results. Therefore, some Web sites which can be searched by Google in the US cannot be searched by Google in China. The number of Web pages today are enormous and everyone use search engines to find Web pages, so not appearing on search results is almost same as not existing.
If government can control some IT companies, it may be able to control all information. If it abuses its power, it will be horrible.
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4 comments:
Valid and scary thoughts! I recently read about how Google was changing its data-retention policies to make search data anonymous after two years instead of indefinitely... Aren't you glad that the Google record keepers can see what you searched for a few years ago? Imagine how that could affect job applications...
i agree george that it could affect job applications..You already hear horror stories about facebook profiles and companies looking at them to get an idea about a applciant...but you shouldnt be scared if you have nothing to hide
Everyone has skeletons in their closet that they would rather employers not see, the internet in general makes it harder to hide them.
I also agree with George that the idea of the government (or anyone else for that matter) being able to see where I have been online is a scary thought.
>george
Yea, its scary. If somebody wanna avoid any risk, he/she can never search something unti-social.
>leibneritec
I think it affect job application, too. I remember that someone wrote the government (companies?) hired hacker to find applicant's profile which supposed not to be opened to the public. If it's true, you can not put any information you don't want to show anyone. You can't decide who can see which info, anymore. You should assume everyone can see the info on the Web.
>Jess
If the government control every online information, it maybe result in the emergence of complete surveillance society. Am I too pessimisic?
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