One of the values of going to law school is being around smart, hard-working people. One of the reasons why I picked Colorado Law specifically is the technology law focus. The current dean has a heavy tech background and has really focused a lot of energy on having great panes and programs concerning technology law. The Silicon Flatirons programs has been particularly helpful.
In today's talk, The Economics of Privacy, there have been great ideas put back and forth. What has concerned me is how much information the internet has about me. The first panel I watched talked about the ways advertising is used. I'm thinking about it even more considering how Google links all of my information. My screen name which I use for email is linked to my real name and identity through my Android phone, and Google+ account. The not so ironic point is that I'm currently on Chrome and writing the post utilizing Blogspot, both Google products. Even knowing how much I'm involved in Google products it was still interesting to see how specific, and how well the targeting advertising targets me. Named targets for dlbinspg: urban and hip hop music, american football and basketball, computer scripting, so on and so forth. Every YouTube video I post and watch, and every website I visit utilizing Google's search features also lend themselves here.
The next talk was about the cutting edge. This was led by two of my professors.The first thing was tying physical identity to digital identity. New tech puts a lot of information online in a public manner. Scales that publish your information on Twitter, iris scanning attached to credit cards and other financial information, and so on. It's to the point where I wonder whether or not privacy matters as much any more.
To an extent it certainly does. I don't want every iota of information publicly information. I probably wouldn't want my potential employer to read everything in this blog. At the very least, the hours I spend playing video games may be percieved to be problematic. I certainly wouldn't all of my information exposed to my family. I wouldn't want strangers to know where I live, and that I'm new to Colorado.
On the other hand, by putting out a ton of information, I also receive a lot of information. When I sign up to Facebook I put out information about my likes and assocations and correlate them to my real name. In response, I also have that information and am able to get to know people more quickly than I would before. Sure we're different politically, and have different tastes in music, but we're both Dallas Cowboys fans or we're both criminal justice majors. I can listen to music and use the music I already own to find more music I may like that is similar. Also, as a result of all of the information I've put out, people with similar interests can also find me. I can find out when Serge Ibaka (NBA player) is returning to the U.S. to begin practice, because of my twitter page. There are a lot of ways that the large amount of information put into the world has been helpful. I think that more people are benefiting from the information than those who are losing out on it.
However, just because I benefit more than I lose doesn't mean that people don't have the right to have their image, thoughts, and interactions to remain private. Unfortunately, it feels like the fight is a losing battle.
