Dylan Gorman is giving you vital information about how the government/ Internet companies are using our private internet data in ways the we could have not imagined. He is currently a student at Alonso High School.

  Our private internet data is being used against us. such as the government stalking us in our homes, internet companies being sellouts, and all the way affecting us in our daily lives. When I say that the government is stalking us, doesn’t that worry you a bit? I mean you would think that in the privacy of our own homes that we can do what you want right? looks like thats not the case. Here is an example: at a high school in Philadelphia, a student by the name of Blake Robbins reported that his school was “Taking a photo of him inside his home” (School backs off on laptop spying in wake of lawsuit, paragraph 1) and this photo was taken of of his school issued laptop. The school says that it was an effort to find stolen and lost laptops, but an announcement would have been nice right? School authorities shut down the feature that they were using and apologized, their claim is “Upon a report of a suspected lost, stolen or missing laptop…The security feature’s capabilities were limited to raking a still image of the operator and the operator’s screen (Lesson 6 Email, Section 3). Honestly this is still wrong that they can just take an image of a child in a home remotely without them even knowing.

  In the means of talking about us, companies are using our data to affect our daily lives. Who would have known that our internet data can affect our jobs. This is just not right, when I’m on the internet I would think that i would be able to do what I want without a consequence, but looks like that is getting thrown completely out of the picture now. In the article Facebook Is Using You, they talk about how “The bits and bytes about your life can easily be used against you” (Paragraph 4). To me this is just not fair at all, I feel like we are being used without our consent.

  With that being said, did you know that stereotyping exists in data aggregation? This is just unbelievable. Here in the article it states that “Your application for credit could be declined not on the basis of your own finances or credit, but on the basis of aggregate data”, basically similar people with similar search results to you and their good or bad habits with those search results. It just makes me furious that this is even allowed in our society of the internet. In the credit card companies defense “Other customers who have used their card at establishments where you recently shopped have a poor repayment history with American Express” (Facebook is using you, Paragraph 5).

  Since we've come across the talk of money, lets discuss how big name companies are being sellouts with OUR internet data. So in the two previous paragraphs we talked about how the government stalks us and that companies use our personal data to affect our daily lives, well guess where they are getting access to this kind of information? Companies like Facebook, Google, and NebuAd are collecting our private internet data and selling to smaller companies  and are making a LOT money for their over all profits, ”Facebook made $3.2 billion in advertising revenue last year, 85 percent of its total revenue…Google took in more than 10 times as much, with an estimated $36.5 billion in advertising revenue in 2011” (Facebook is using you, Paragraph 3).

  Wow, all of that money just because they can sell our personal internet data. Instead of us just complaining about the government and companies having unlimited access to our private internet data, why don’t we take a stand? A study taken place in the 1970’s from a professor by the name of John McKnight coined the term “redlining”. It was used to flag the failure of banks, insurers and other institutions. There were people in 2008 that took a pole about how companies should ask for permission before using personal information. “A pole of 2,000 people found that 93 percent thought the internet companies should always ask permission before using personal information” (Facebook is using you, paragraph 11). Why don’t we do what these people are doing and take a stand for our own privacy of our internet data? Why don’t we keep the government out of our homes and keep companies from ruining our daily lives? If we all take a stand together, we can all make a difference. The next time you go onto the internet keep in mind all the things that were stated and be safe browsing the internet.