Reflection

Before I began this course, blogging was a foreign concept to me. I hadn’t run one before, so of course I was unsure about what I should write about for the first few weeks. So I began with a post about the topic I know better than anyone else: myself. I talked about me and my winding career journey up to this point, a story I’m quite used to telling. After another week or two, I got the hang of it, and starting searching for articles related to the First Amendment, summarizing them, and including a bit of my opinion in the posts.
I got to talk about various ways the First Amendment was misused or not used where it should, as well as a few posts expressing my methods of securing my online privacy. Nevertheless, up-keeping a blog - for the first half of the semester, at least - was fairly difficult, as it was hard to pick and choose which articles are discussed. It was also difficult to simply remember to do it; I remember a few days where I spontaneously remembered I forgot to finish my blog post for that week. It was a bit easier in the second half, where the articles were based off of in-class activities. This way, I could come fresh out of class with ideas for a blog and write them down.
For future students, I would recommend setting reminders at the end of each week to wrap up the blog post. Space out your blog posts, because cramming a few of them together is not fun. In addition, I would also recommend not getting all their articles in the same week or so. Writing about more recent events is much more intriguing and easier to discuss than something you grabbed an article on five weeks ago and didn’t bother writing about until that day.

Five Eyes

One aspect of a series of presentations done in class today that I found intriguing was the intelligence agency known as "Five Eyes." "Five Eyes" is a set of five countries devoted to gathering intelligence, made up of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The types of intelligence they gather are vast, from defense intelligence to human intelligence. They were the developers of ECHELON, a surveillance system I was familiar with thanks to my father, a computer expert, who jokingly named one of our home's WiFi networks "ECHELON Spy Satellite." The "Five Eyes" also monitor the World Wide Web. A whistleblower I discussed in my own presentation, Edward Snowden, leaked that the members have been spying on one another's citizens and described the organization as "a supra-natural organization that does not answer to the laws of its own countries." In spite of controversy, it remains a powerful surveillance force.

I only had one question in regards to the organization: With the United Kingdom having been part of the European Union up until recently, when they threatened to walk out, did the EU have access to any of the UK's information? If the EU did have this information, and it retains this information after the UK's departure, could this information be weaponized and used against the countries involved - or maybe even the ones not related?

The Problem with Privacy

When it comes to internet privacy, I tend to be overly cautious about my digital footprint, almost to the point where some would call it paranoia. I don't post anything online that I think would be inappropriate or doesn't reflect me as a person - this results in me not posting very frequently due to coming up with ideas for posts and then backing out at the last second. When it comes to downloads, if a download seems fishy, I either refuse the download or eliminate it as soon as possible, because the idea of malware frightens me. So when I found out about what the government knows about me from something as small as location services, I freaked out. Of course, I don't go or do anywhere or anything illegal or dangerous - that's just not my style. The reason why I got nervous was that I hate the idea of being watched without my knowing - especially by people I don't know. Even when I'm doing something good, I would prefer my viewers to be known and limited. And seeing as how I spend a lot of time online, I shudder at the thought of how much information I have given that the government has "borrowed."

Thankfully, I believe my footprint is still small. Because I'm very careful of my digital footprint, I tend to leave behind consistent, false information, such as a fake birth date and age. I'm extremely cautious about what personal information I reveal online - when asked to share my credit card or something similar, I check the site's Terms of Service to see exactly what they do with it. And my results seem to have paid off: when testing how much my carbon footprint has grown by googling myself, after a long and arduous process looking through plenty of names, I finally found a profile that closely resembles mine - devoid of any personal information, aside from my name. And these videos encouraged me to make sure that profile never gets filled out.

The Tragedy of a Whistleblower

What is a whistleblower, you may ask? To put it simply, it is one who informs others of misdeeds in the workplace. The phrase may originate from sports referees who would use the blowing of a whistle to signify an unfair play, or from police officers who would also use whistles in order to alert others of a law being broken. Thus, a whistleblower came to be known as one who exposes information that is deemed illegal or unethical.
While the term "whistleblower" is a more good-hearted term than its equivalents such as "snitch" or "informer," the term still carries a feeling of uneasiness around it, not for the action itself - which is usually considered a good thing - but for the consequences and repercussions of said actions. Whistleblowers often receive retaliation from the workplace for their snitchiness, ranging from demotions to losing their jobs, and even their ability to be hired ever again. Thus, the term whistleblower is one employees tend to avoid, even when they know something is wrong and it needs to be shown to others. Numerous laws have been enacted to prevent employer retaliation, but the majority of workplaces tend to be silent out of fear regardless.

If you have any questions about whistleblowing or whistleblower protection, here's a site where you can learn more.

Online Presence

I've always been very careful about distributing personal information online, so in terms of my online footprint, I think it's actually fairly small. This might be due to the fact that I only use two social media sites - Twitter and Snapchat (the latter very rarely to boot) - and even when I do use them, it's mainly to share other people's content that I enjoy. Most of the time, I'm just sharing content from others I find to be funny or important; I rarely post myself. As an example of how rarely I post, as of April 4, 2019, my last original Twitter post was in October of last year.
When it comes to personal information distribution, I'm very careful about who gets what. While I do use my real name if asked for it, I do sometimes use a fake date of birth on some of my online accounts - just to make gathering personal information a bit more difficult. And from what I can remember, I have only given out my address online once: to Amazon, in order to have them deliver a package. Needless to say, I am extremely careful about which sites know what about me.

COM Tech Timeline

In terms of modern tech giants, none have had as much of an influence as Google. Initially popular for their advanced search engine that left the competition in the dust, Google has now expanded its influence to encompass an email platform, the video streaming platform YouTube, and, until recently, its own social media platform, Google Plus. Nearly every website has a "sign up with Gmail" option nowadays, proving just how far Google's influence has spread. The popularity of the platform is mostly due to the convenience and reliability of the search engine and Gmail. However, the widespread influence of Google has a major downside: it discourages aspiring tech companies from trying out ideas Google already has a part in, as they could not possibly dream of beating the tech giant and its massive sphere of influence. But has it spread too thin?
Recently, Google announced the shutdown of Google Plus and Google Inbox, digging the grave for two more of its less popular applications. These aren't the only applications that Google had to put away after their initial hype wore off; Google Notebook, Google Hangouts, Google Health, and Google Glass are just some of the products that the big G-man had to put down. However, this doesn't seem to be stopping them from expanding even further into uncharted territory, if their gaming console Stadia is anything to go by. However, the big question is: how far can they spread before they collapse?

Eight Values

In my opinion, the fourth of the eight values of free expression - the one which promotes individual self-fulfillment - is the most important. The promotion of individuality and expressiveness through free speech is too important a concept to ignore, as it allows people to forge their own individual sense of identity, rather than identify solely as part of a collective and nothing more. Individuality integrates the idea of free speech into our personality, dignity, agency, and autonomy. In addition, it allows us to form our own social networks with ideas and identities similar to our own, rather than forcefully being affiliated with people who we may or may not agree with solely based on areas like political party. Without our individuality, we would be more hesitant to express our ideas and thoughts, making America as a whole less innovative and self-critical; and the ability to criticize our own government is another part of what makes America stand out. Individuality is a major backbone for criticizing our government; without it, how could we expect to voice our ideas to the government if those same individual ideas are being suppressed?