Christopher Soghoian's Ted Talk on phone surveillance stood out to me because of how easy it is for anyone to go through, what he calls, the back door and listen in. He opens his presentation by explaining the history of Government surveillance. When calls were connected manually, they were also recorded onto a tape and then given to a government official when asked. Then, when phone networks were built with computers, they were built specifically for surveillance. If this doesn't seem troubling at first, Soghoian goes on to explain that there is no guarantee that our government is the one listening. It is more of a security threat, to me, to have phone networks that any entity can surveil rather than cutting off everyone as well as our government. Some people want to make the argument that we are safer when surveilled because the government can keep an eye on us, but this video clearly showed that there are more people listening than we think.
This doesn't stop at phone calls, however. Social Media companies have developed a business model of invading our privacy and selling the information. The absolute biggest issue with this is government collusion. The Third Party Doctrine allows for private companies to have control of information once the users sign the terms and conditions. The issue, however, is when that information goes to the government and then the government turns around and tells that company what information to allow and to ban. To protect yourself from any third party acquisitions of your information, only post what you would be okay with any government agency seeing. The best solution would be to not have social media at all, but that seems unrealistic.
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