In today’s world, everyone is always on their phone or on the internet. Whether it be for work or just for personal pleasure, the internet is being used all the time by almost everyone. In the article “The Internet Is a Surveillance State” written by Bruce Schneier, many examples are shown that provide evidence that everything that people do on the internet is now being tracked. The author is a security technologist and author of Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust Society Needs and many other novels regarding security. He has been known to be very opinionated over the matter of internet security and has been seen on the news on more than one occasion. The article was posted on cnn.com on March 16, 2013, meaning that the article is not
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One of the examples stated that a reporter used a computer program to track if any companies or people had been tracking him. He then found that during the course of thirty six hours, his internet usage had been tracked by a hundred and five companies. The author also states that Apple tracks iPhone and iPad users, Facebook tacks members and non-members of their site, and the FBI and CIA are constantly tracking people using internet surveillance. These examples prove to make people uncomfortable, probably a bit angry at the U.S. government, and even a little scared. Schneier then goes on to say that even if people take precautions, internet surveillance is unavoidable. “We can limit what we search on Google from our iPhones, and instead use computer browsers that allow us to delete cookies. We can use an alias on Facebook. We can turn our cell phones off and spend cash. But increasingly, none of it matters” (56). While this may be true, this does not mean that all internet surveillance is bad. In fact, many of Schneier’s earlier examples proved that surveillance is beneficial. While writing these examples, he chose to omit the fact that in many of these cases, civilian safety was the main focus and by tracking a person’s internet usage, the government was …show more content…
However, this does not mean that having Google, Apple, and Facebook tracking their users is correct or that people should tolerate it. In today’s world, people need to be more aware of what is happening every single time they are on the internet, or even just on their phones. Schneier wrote, “Welcome to an Internet without privacy, and we’ve ended up here with hardly a fight” (57). Due to this, readers now understand that internet surveillance is by no means a good thing, but Schneier did not provide an adequate amount of evidence that really backed up his
One of the examples stated that a reporter used a computer program to track if any companies or people had been tracking him. He then found that during the course of thirty six hours, his internet usage had been tracked by a hundred and five companies. The author also states that Apple tracks iPhone and iPad users, Facebook tacks members and non-members of their site, and the FBI and CIA are constantly tracking people using internet surveillance. These examples prove to make people uncomfortable, probably a bit angry at the U.S. government, and even a little scared. Schneier then goes on to say that even if people take precautions, internet surveillance is unavoidable. “We can limit what we search on Google from our iPhones, and instead use computer browsers that allow us to delete cookies. We can use an alias on Facebook. We can turn our cell phones off and spend cash. But increasingly, none of it matters” (56). While this may be true, this does not mean that all internet surveillance is bad. In fact, many of Schneier’s earlier examples proved that surveillance is beneficial. While writing these examples, he chose to omit the fact that in many of these cases, civilian safety was the main focus and by tracking a person’s internet usage, the government was …show more content…
However, this does not mean that having Google, Apple, and Facebook tracking their users is correct or that people should tolerate it. In today’s world, people need to be more aware of what is happening every single time they are on the internet, or even just on their phones. Schneier wrote, “Welcome to an Internet without privacy, and we’ve ended up here with hardly a fight” (57). Due to this, readers now understand that internet surveillance is by no means a good thing, but Schneier did not provide an adequate amount of evidence that really backed up his