So, you think you’ve got nothing to hide? As privacy slips further and further from reality to an illusion, now is a better time than ever to stop and take a look around. Every text or email you’ve sent and every phone call you’ve made very well may keep you from getting a job in the future. With a little bit of cash, anyone may have access to this information in our lifetime. The government already does. This tone may sound like that of a paranoid author who believes President Barack Obama wants to take our guns so he can murder our families, but it’s hard to ignore the facts: Corporations and our government are digging deeper and deeper into our personal lives at an alarming rate.
Consider this: Google has the right to take any idea stored on one of its services and use it for the company’s own benefit. For instance, a user uploads schematics of a new computer to Google Drive. Google may take that user’s idea, modify it and use it for its own “services.” LinkedIn goes a step further and has a right to “publish,” “copy,” “process” or do just about anything it wants with content you submit to the website.
The retort “Well, you agreed to it, so that’s tough” simply does not apply here. America has always prided itself as being a bastion of capitalism — a system based entirely upon an individual’s rights. Denying Americans their privacy is against the very fabric by which this country was formed. Services like LinkedIn are crucial to gain employment and stay competitive in this shaky economy. There is something completely unfair regarding the notion that if citizens don’t surrender their ideas, privacy and data, they become less marketable when searching for a job.
Companies like Yahoo amend their terms of agreement without even notifying users. Even if most people don’t read them, this type of corporate behavior requires regulation. And the brakes need to be applied to the third party doctrine, a loophole that allows the government to bypass the Fourth Amendment by receiving information from companies like Google and Facebook, as opposed to directly invading your privacy.
No legislation has been passed to defend Americans from these new, vicious terms of agreement. This has to change in the future, or we might as well be living under the communist regime in China. While the European Union certainly has some privacy issues of its own, companies are required by law to disclose what personal information they have collected from their users. This would be a good starting point for the United States. Instead of being forced to turn over data for free, an individual could receive a cut of the profits companies are making off of them. If not, they could opt out of turning over their data and use Internet services for free.
Trusting the government to provide a remedy to this situation is certainly disheartening, especially considering the Edward Snowden leak last June. However, the Washington Post reported last month that 74 percent of Americans believe the National Security Agency is violating our privacy. This means that hope is still alive, and Americans still feel their privacy is important.
Last December, Instagram made an amendment to its terms of agreement that allowed the site to sell any users’ photos to other businesses without any compensation. Due to public outrage, Instagram was forced to remove this revision from its terms of agreement. As a generation that warmly embraces change, evolution and technological innovations, it’s certainly easy to remain apathetic toward issues like this. But when the average citizen takes a stand and makes noise, change does happen. Going forward, Americans must continue to apply pressure to Capitol Hill, as well as corporations. Our gaze must always be set toward a brighter future, while also remembering an old cliché: Nothing in this life is free.