Privacy

Privacy and new media have raised speculation on whether or not the surveillance that comes along with social networking sites is a direct violation to our privacy rights. Many people address whether or not it’s ethical and if it violates our constitutional rights. Internet surveillance is widely used for marketing, police investigations, and government operations to maintain social order and monitor threats. There are a variety of softwares incorporated into the apps we use, whether they are in use or not, that collect data, analyze and sort, and then sell to third parties for advertising. Everything that we do on the Internet provides data about our interests and our lifestyles. Companies use this type of surveillance to generate content that users want to see based on their interests and past search histories rather than pay money to target a group of people who has to interest or relevance to that product or service. 
The government and the police use our social media monitoring softwares to monitor protests, identify key leaders, gather information for emergency response, and help aid in investigations. Specific software allows for the government to search key words associated with violence, protests, and can link them back to terrorism and other crimes. The principle of the surveillance itself and how the technology is essentially spyware is all very unsettling as we are now living in a mass surveillance society.