Privacy
Read Blown to Bits Chapter 2 and answer these questions. You can revise your answers after we discuss this reading in class or in the forum.
Questions for pages 19-55
- Short answer
- What is an RFID tag and what does it do?
- What is an EDR and what does it do?
- Is it possible to identify someone, perhaps a patient, knowing just his or her gender, birth date, and zip code? Explain.
- What is the difference between "big brotherism" and "little brotherism"?
- Free Response
- How do you feel about “Big Brother” watching you? Do you think having security cameras everywhere is good or bad?
- Is the Privacy Act effective? Explain.
- “The digital explosion has scattered the bits of our lives everywhere: records of the clothes we wear, the soaps we wash with, the streets we walk, and the cars we drive and where we drive them.” (pg 20) Marketing companies use these data to build models of our preferences and use these models to recommend products to us.. In 1 or 2 paragraphs, address the question 'Am I willing to trade some of my privacy for the convenience of having a computer or a company recommend products to me? Why or Why not?’
- Bonus Questions (may require additional reading)
- How do “we leave digital footprints and fingerprints?” Do you think this is important for everyone to know? Why or why not?
- How has the social evolution affected privacy? Consider social networking.
- What are our responsibilities as app developers with data that is gathered from the apps we create?
- Search the web for a recent news story that deals with privacy. Write a paragraph.