Category: ITC174

I believe that unethical human activity is the primary reason for lack of privacy and safety on the internet. If there was no one out there looking to exploit people’s privacy or abusing coding skills to hack, the internet could be a much safer place.  Our safety is constantly at stake when it is all online. We place ourselves in a very venerable state. There are many factors contributing to this such as laziness, hacking, privacy policies and scamming. All of which are affected in one way or another by unethical human activity. Yes, even the laziness but I will explain how.

So one thing that really brings us down is our own laziness. We prefer to click “save password” rather than typing up our password rather than typing it up. This in itself is not unethical, but what it brings about is. By saving our passwords we are basically leaving an open door to anyone who wants to take our information. If it was not for these people who exploit the use of this setting then of course the internet would be a much safer place and we would not have to constantly be on edge that if we save our password, one day all of information can be abused by people looking to do some identity theft or even selling information on black markets or worst case scenario it can put our safety in real life at risk. In the Australian Government Stay Safe Online website (2017) they state that if you save your google password to you computer it places you in a high risk point as google accounts are usually linked to several other accounts, especially Android users who’s information is constantly stored in the google cloud. If one account gets hacked, they have free access to all your other accounts that are linked. Like a domino effect. This is a good innuendo to bring up hacking.

Hacking can be used for good when it comes to police investigation and things like that but majority of the time or at least what it’s commonly known to be used for is information theft. There are several different forms of hacking, one is where someone actively hacks either a computer, phone or account using coding and programming in order to find your personal information and abuse it. According to the Life Education website hackers can also capture wifi passwords which grants them access to any device that is connected or anything that is transmitted through the wifi such as emails. Hacking is unethical as it is used to breach peoples privacy and online safety and it is a huge contributor to the lack thereof.

Scamming is very similar to hacking. It is usually presented as a link in a website or email and when a victim clicks on one a program is downloaded to their computer which basically grants access to any information they have set out to get. Some get account passwords, others collect bank details and some are more advanced and can even grant access to the cameras on laptops or computers. Scamming is highly unethical and invades privacy and also puts people at risk.

Last but definitely not least, privacy policies. Privacy policies are supposed to give us assurance that our information that we place online is safe, right? Well that is not always the case. Privacy policies are usually very long documents with many detailed points. I do not know if this is the effect that companies hope for but this does cause people to usually ignore it and not read the fine print. For example Facebook owns everything you post. Most people do not know this but everything you post on Facebook can be used by the company for anything of their choosing. Our personal information lies in the hands of a big corporation, it is not ours to control in the end. I found a list of examples of what they call “misleading privacy policies” on the Privacy Monitor website (2019).

 

Another very similar breach of privacy is the “cookies” tracker which collects data from you usage over certain websites so it can then send your messages to social media so they can send advertisements based on what you frequently search up. If these companies are abusing their power through their privacy policies, what is stopping others from doing the same or worse.

At the root of each of these data breaches there is always a person. Sometimes we forget that behind the screen of a scam or a virus there is a person, trying to steal your privacy and safety from underneath your feet and companies are out there breaching your privacy behind your back yet somehow with your consent, all for their benefit and your loss. So yes, unethical human activity is mainly and primarily responsible for our safety and privacy being jeopardised on the internet because people are constantly exploiting these online tools.

 

References:

ACSC. (2017).  Safe or Risky: saving passwords in your browser. Stay Smart Online. Retrieved from https://www.staysmartonline.gov.au/news/safe-or-risky-saving-passwords-your-browser

Life Education. (n.d.). How Safe Is Your Personal Information Online?. Life Education. Retrieved from https://www.lifeeducation.org.au/parents/how-safe-is-your-personal-information-online

Osano. (2019). April 2019 Misleader Board. Privacy Monitor. Retrieved from https://www.privacymonitor.com/misleader/2019-04-09/

 

 

 

I created this video by using my phone in order to create a time lapse of me drawing. First I wrote out what I wanted to say, then I started drawing and writing it out during the time lapse. It took me around 20 minutes worth of filming in order to get around 1 minute and 30 seconds worth of video but it was going too fast for me to add any words to it. So, I slowed the video down  x.5 which left me with the perfect speed for the things I wanted to say and 4 minutes worth of video. Then using Flimora Go I edited the video and used its provided music to add to the background, and used it to record and add my voice over.

In order to upload my computer to the computer I used google photos and then did some final edits using OpenShot, as I orignally thought I would be able to use it to add the thumbnail but I count so I used youtube to do that instead. I found the thumbnail using Unsplash images.

Making this podcast was a lot of work, in the sense that you had to test every tool and see which ones would or wouldn’t work well.

When it came to the actual recording tool I tried Audacity first and although it is a great recording tool it is very simplistic and adding music to it would have been a lot more work, so I moved onto AudioBoom which from first appearance seems to be a good option, until you attempt to record a podcast where it will ask you to pay in order to record. So I decided to try out Spreaker and luckily it was straight forward and easy to record and add music.

The music was also a bit of a mission. I tried Bensound and though it has great options, it’s licensing doesn’t allow podcast use. Then I tried Jamendo and my laptop wouldn’t allow the files to be downloaded so I moved onto Free Music Archive and luckily everything went smoothly and it was so easy to insert the music into Spreaker.

As for the image, I got it from Pixabay which I already knew how to use so I found it easily.

 

Hey, this is my info-graph on how the recent lock-downs in several countries has affected the environment.

WHAT?

I did the ‘Connect Quiz’ and I was surprised at my lack of knowledge, despite the fact that I used social media on a regular basis. I’m  It goes to show the huge difference between the professional use and the social use of web 2.0 tools for connection.

Since I started university I have been learning how to use my social media understanding in order to create a professional profiles and connections. For example I now how a Linkedin profile where I have connected with people who are in my field of interest. I am now involved in two discussion groups with people who have similar professional goals to me and one involving art, which is a hobby of mine. I’ve also started to use Facebook in order to connect to my classmates in general studies. We use it to talk about assessments or if someone missed a class, they can get updated on what we covered. I am improving my skills and have become more confident but I still have ways to go.

SO WHAT?

Online learning and connecting are a vital part of our society as it gives us access to a world of opportunities, whether it be access to information or job opportunities or meeting people that have experience in your field of interest. Technology is ever-growing and we must grow with it, and learn how to use it to our advantage, such as using web 2.0 tools. They make professional and learning collaborations much easier, giving us both synchronous and asynchronous  tools. For example you can use chats and forums such as Facebook and Pinterest to share information with others and these can be accessed and viewed at any time (asynchronous) where as you can use video conference tools to view classes in real time (synchronous). I’ve learnt that through the use of the web 2.0 tool Linkedin I can be a part of groups with other students who want to go into policing or are already in it and can discuss subjects related to policing and I’ve learnt how to make a professional profile that I can use to get a job, I never knew you could use an online profile for anything other than connecting with friends and family. As the internet broadens, more and more of our lives will have to be online so knowing how to create our own PLE’s and professional profiles is very useful as soon that will be our resume.

NOW WHAT?

I have learnt so many new things since I began this course, such as a month ago I would not have known what a web 2.0 tool was and now I not only do I know that they have been a part of my everyday life but now I know how to use them to my advantage to collaborate professionally. I have actually been using Whatsapp for a long time now to collaborate with my coworkers about our shifts and now I am using Facebook to connect with my classmates, I am using Linkedin to find out more about my chosen career goal through others experiences, and now I am using this blog to reflect on my own experience and knowledge. I admit I’m still not completely confident with using these tools for professional reasons as I definitely struggled to initially connect with people on Linkedin and struggled to get this blog up and running, but I am improving and learning. The more experience I get the more I get the hang of these tools.

My chosen tool was Pinterest and the purpose of it is to share and find images based on your interests.