The definition of privacy is: "the state or condition of being free from being observed or disturbed by other people” (https://www.google.com/search?q=privacy+definition&oq=privac&aqs=chrome.2.69i57j0l6j69i60.2592j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8). It seems fairly simple, you get to live your life without anyone being in your business. You might think you get this through all of your online accounts or just day to day living. However, it is not possible to live a completely private life in today’s world. From street cameras to online account to other people’s phones, your life will never be completely private.
It never quite occurred to me how much information could be collected on me by just driving my car somewhere. If it is not tracked by my GPS, then someone could have gotten me on their phone, or street camera or even a camera on a cop's car. I can be tracked going to the grocery store and not even know it. This might not seem like a huge deal until you are tracked everywhere you go and the government starts making a profile of where you go and what you are doing even if you didn’t do anything wrong.
Facial recognition is one of the biggest things that makes me uneasy. When I was working on some photographs one day in iPhoto I noticed a section called faces. I hadn’t paid much attention to it until I saw a closeup image of my face. I clicked on it out of curiosity and started to play around with it. I added in a couple names to some faces then it scanned ALL of my photos within a matter of seconds and matched up all the faces to the names that I had just put in. I was utterly stunned. While I was very impressed (even though it was not 100% accurate), I was also nervous. What else could it do if my computer can not only just show me a picture but who is in it and where it was taken. Cool…but scary.
Privacy was not much I had thought about until I got Instagram. I make an effort to make sure all my accounts are private and I know who follows me. This way I feel safer about what I post and who sees it. It’s my life I should be able to control it, right? Wrong. While a lot of social media accounts promise privacy from other people, they collect information about you in order to know what you like and don't like. With this data, they collect and use it to use for advertising and other things. The idea that my computer or phone might know more about me than I do myself does not make me feel totally comfortable. While I did not touch on every aspect of our security and lifestyles, who’s to say what they are listening to, not only through our phone calls but simply from our pockets as well.
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