Makayla Kyle

May 1st, 2023

Essay 4

What is so Important About Privacy?

Privacy is something that everyone strives to have. It something that think they have.

However, technology takes a lot of that privacy away without people knowing. People constantly

have their faces embedded in their phone while walking, sitting, waiting. It has become a

comfort for some people. Something they’re not aware of is how much of their personal

information is on the internet. Social media showing ads that one has researched on Google is

not a coincidence. Instead of social media giving away our information, they should inform its

users about the privacy agreement before people sign up for something they didn’t want. The

first and fourth amendment need to be protected by social media apps. They do not reserve the

right to sell its users’ information to the government or to companies. Many articles address what

the problem is, but Leetaru, Solove, and Langvardt provide reasonings as to why peoples privacy

is being invaded and what people can do to prevent that. Though technology and social media are

constantly evolving, it is important to maintain its users by protecting their privacy rights at all

costs.

Sold! Social media apps violate the fourth amendment by selling personal information

that individuals are not informed about. They are then put on a marketing list to receive

advertisements that are fit just for them. In the article, Will Governments Turn Our Smart

Devices Into A Massive Surveillance Network?, Leetaru speaks about how our devices listen to

people. Often, whoever is listening will use the information people search up or even talk about

and sell them ads. This may seem harmless, however, on a deeper level, some listeners will sell
users information for the government to use. According to Leetaru, he says, "The devices have

become so integrated into our lives that we often forget just how much information they are

collecting about us. For example, Portal’s privacy statement notes that the device offers an

optional feature that uses the location of your mobile phone to know when you are home" (Para

3). This is a huge invasion of privacy. Users are constantly blindsided when it comes to our

information being sold anywhere. Social media should reach out to its users and tell them what

information is being sold. The fourth amendment gives people the right to privacy to an extent.

However, the government needs to have a reasonable cause. Gaining information just because is

not an example of a reasonable.

Along with not knowing how peoples personal information is being used, some people

aren’t even aware that their personal information is being used. Solove's article, The Myth of the

Privacy Paradox, is a great representation of what privacy is and what exactly it means.

Specifically looking at the Misunderstandings and Lack of Knowledge tab, this shows how little

people know about privacy within social media. People don't know how much of their

information is being sold. According to Solove and his evidence, Professor Kirsten Marin, "A

study by Professor Kirsten Marin demonstrated that people wrongly interpreted a privacy notice

to be “more protective of consumer data than the actual notice included in the survey.”110

Martin found that “respondents projected the important factors to their privacy expectations onto

the privacy notice. Privacy notices became a tabula rasa for users’ privacy expectations.”111 Not

only do people have misunderstandings about privacy notices, but these misunderstandings are

systematic and predictable based on people’s privacy expectations" (pg. 20). This shows how

little is shared with the users of technology. People immediately expect for devices to protect our

every move within social media and technology, but it doesn't. Being that many people don't
know much about the privacy rights that everyone agrees to, it is important to educate

themselves on what they're really signing up for. Technology should also educate their users by

not bombarding them with pages of their privacy agreement, but a summarized agreement that is

easy to understand.

Facebook has a huge following. Most users watch what they post and make sure they

don’t “cross any lines” within the Facebook rules. Sometimes the rules can be very useful when

posting something that is questionable. In Regulating Online Content Moderation, Langvardt

says, “Yet today, users of social media are subject to a regime of private censorship that was only

recently unimaginable. On Facebook, for instance, users who leave a “cruel or insensitive”

comment may face a “cruelty checkpoint” in which a moderator asks them to consider removing

it; if they persist, their accounts may be closed. Users may face similar consequences for

offending Facebook’s often inconsistent policies on hate speech or sexual content” (pg. 1355).

This consequence is great to have when someone isn’t doing something right on social media. It

also shows that someone is always monitoring what is happening on social media. Some people

do not have a filter when it comes to social media. However, the first amendment should

overrule the Facebook rules. People have the right to the freedom of speech. It is extremely

unfair to Facebook users to be censored on the behalf of social media. People should not feel the

need to walk on eggshells and censor themselves on social media. How is anyone going to trust

these apps when they censoring what they don’t want to see on their app? It is very controlling.

Another idea from Solove’s article is the issues with privacy, copyright, property, etc.

Within these articles is that we have to either protect our personal data or we let it roam free

within the "portal". Something wrong with this is the fact that people have to pay to protect their

personal information from the darkness of the world. For example, Solove speaks about how
people have to pay to have privacy from the outside world. Why do people have to pay for such a

thing? He continues to say that the government has their own ways of getting our personal

information. In the article, it shows four pictures. One of them being a very dehydrated person in

a desert, helpless. Someone that was hydrated and dressed in a very nice suit was holding a jug

of water, as if he knew he was going to run into the helpless man. He offered the helpless man

the water for just a little information about him. Of course the guy will do anything to survive so

he agreed to the deal. In real terms, the government knows how to lure helpless people in to get

more information out of them. Sometimes, its not just helpless people, but just anyone who needs

government assistance. All the government cares about is the information we provide them. This

is yet another violation of the fourth amendment. The government will always want personal

information that could be used against people or used to their own advantage.

It is really easy for social media and technology to monitor peoples every move. Because

it has become normal to use a device regularly, some don’t think twice about their information

being used against them. Solove, Langvardt, and Leetaru stress the importance of peoples

privacy. They preach to their readers that the only way to protect their privacy is to not associate

with social media platforms. Having a transparent relationship with the users and

apps/technologies is something that the user would prefer. Whether it’s ads, specific posts,

certain information being “sold”, or not understanding what privacy really means, its crucial for

social media and technology to protect its users privacy rights.

 Works Cited

Leetaru, Kalev. “Will Governments Turn Our Smart Devices into a Massive Surveillance
Network?” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 10 Oct. 2018,
https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2018/10/09/will-governments-turn-our-smart-
devices-into-a-massive-surveillance-network/?sh=7065b7cc26b6.

Regulating Online Content Moderation - Georgetown University.

https://www.law.georgetown.edu/georgetown-law-journal/wp-
content/uploads/sites/26/2018/07/Regulating-Online-Content-Moderation.pdf.

Solove, Daniel J. “The Myth of the Privacy Paradox.” SSRN, 24 Feb. 2020,
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3536265.