Ames' syllabi

http://gizmodo.com/there-are-some-super-shady-things-in-oculus-rifts-terms-1768678169

This documentary hooked me in from the very beginning with the eery montage of people accepting terms and conditions on the computer with strange music playing in the background. From the get go, they established how much of a threat these terms and conditions have become, stating that it would take 180 hours a year for you to read every term & condition you sign up for. Which wouldn’t be a problem if they didn’t include anything harmful, but they do. The most astonishing one discovered in this documentary is the fact that Instagram owns all the right to photos posted on it. However, after doing some digging, Instagram’s policy on this has now changed: http://www.copyrightlaws.com/creators/instagram-and-copyright-what-are-the-terms-of-use/.

I have been incredibly interested in internet anonymity ever since the whole Edward Snowden vs. the NSA stuff in late 2012. Like a lot of americans, it opened my eyes to what the government really is up to, as that was all you saw on the internet and tv for weeks. The really interesting part, was the mainstream media wasn’t quite sure how to handle it. CNN and Fox News weren’t sure whether or not to label him a hero or a traitor. Luckily, I am an avid reader of Reddit, so I was able to get an unbiased view of what was happening.

Anyways, the whole NSA whistleblowing revealed to me, just like this documentary reinforced, that all Internet privacy laws really went out the window as soon as the Patriot Act was put into place.  There  was some things that were new to me from this documentary that I previously didn’t know about. I knew that companies like Facebook sells your info to other companies, but the ad networking flow chart displayed in the film was astonishing. The fact that that many different companies have information on me is terrifying.

More terrifying than all of that is not that companies have my info, but the government does and uses it to their advantage. All the examples in the movie, from the police in the Netherlands using GPS info for speed traps, the Cold Case writer mis taken for a murderer, the kid who was questioned at school by Secret Service for a dumb Facebook post, and the man who quoted a movie on Facebook and got the SWAT team called on him were all flat out disturbing. The worst part is that there’s all these examples, and so many whistle blowers and still NOTHING gets done to change what is happening. I was hoping this documentary at the end would bring a call to action, but instead ended with just a website, trackoff.us. It’s just about how to protect yourself on the internet, not how to protect everyone else. Hopefully Mark Zuckerberg ended up watching the documentary, and as he was asking not to be recorded, he will start to respect our anonymity and not record us. He won’t though, and neither will all of the big companies, and that’s why there is no call to action in this documentary. Money rules the world, and until that stops happening, nothing will be done to protect the citizens of the world.

In this documentary, they pursue exactly what it means when we check the terms and conditions box on many websites. They go into detail about many of the major points of large websites. After the first viewing of each point they go into extreme detail of exactly each point means.

Before watching this movie I knew about some of the things they were doing. I had the idea that “If I’m not doing anything wrong and it helps national security what do I care if the government listens to my phone calls.” I think I would still keep this thought-process if it were just that. However, I have learned that the government can access every single time you press a key on your phone. This rose the question to me, why in the world would the government need to know every time I press a key? That is not ok with me.

Another point that aggravated me was that these large companies are selling my information. I don’t even want the websites to know  as much about me as they do, never the less sell it to someone for a prophet. To me, that seems wrong. I can some what understand websites wanting to know information to better serve you, but that should be encrypted information that is safe. It seems like a responsibility of the company that is taking so much information to keep it safe from others, not sell it.

After this movie I wanted to through my smart phone off a cliff and go back to the good ol days of a flip phone. I think companies and the government have way too much of a foot hold in our personal lives. I understand when the government says its for national security but national security doesn’t need to document every time I add bills up on my calculator. As for the companies, I truly believe that they would be out of business if only 50% of there users fully read and understood there terms and conditions. It is intrusion of ones personal matter and should not be kept on file.

Everyone who has been on the internet has most likely agreed to a site’s terms and conditions. I think it’s safe to say that most, if not, all of those people didn’t read a single word of those terms and conditions. The same goes with any privacy policy. Terms and Conditions May Apply shares some scary facts about this phenomenon that could open some eyes. One being the fact that most websites, mainly social media, that you sign up for own anything you upload. This can be given to the government if requested. Sites like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn can and will use this policy. The film points out that this all started in 2001 with the Patriot Act. Before 9/11, the government was ready to pass privacy laws that would prevent citizens from having their personal information searched by authorities without their permission, but once the world trade center went down, these laws were given up on and the Patriot Act was signed. This act lay the groundwork for our internet privacy to become nonexistent. Google’s privacy policy was given as an example. In 2000, Google’s privacy policy said users were given anonymity, but in 2001, it was changed to their users’ information being “anonymous except when legally obligated.” This means that if the government asks for personal information about a user, Google will give them it. The crazy thing is that these sites can change their policies without anyone really knowing it. Facebook did this awhile back, changing everyone’s information back to the default of being publicly available. This can be done because the original policy said so. There are loopholes throughout every agreement and moments where they outright say something the user wouldn’t agree to had they actually read the thing.

There are arguments that “if you have nothing to hide, then you shouldn’t be worried” about spying and actions of that nature, but complete privacy is a basic human right. Even if you have nothing to hide, any authority could interpret something you said to mean whatever they want. For example, the film shows a 7th grader who made a statement of FaceBook about the president. He said that Barack Obama should watch out for “suicide bombers.” This was a statement of concern, not a threat, but sure enough the FBI came to his school and placed him in custody. Another example given was a writer on Cold Case being placed on a list because he searched Google for terms like “dead body,” “decapitated head,” and “murder wife.” He was just doing research for a murder mystery TV show. These provide ample evidence that the authorities having our information is more of a good thing than a bad thing. It places us all at risk and rarely does anything to “protect us.”

Terms and conditions are something that people see and experience daily but if you were to ask someone what they just agreed to the majority would not have a response. The companies who put these policies together and have you blindly agree to these conditions are not doing this to protect you, they are protecting themselves and invading your privacy. Some make the terms and conditions 5 pages long in an unreadable font so that you’d rather blindly agree to them than actual read them. Companies that actually want you to be aware of their polices, make theirs short and to the point. Signing agreements like this didn’t come around until new technology made it necessary. Laptops, smartphones, tablets, and more are now constantly have us sign and agree to things that we would probably need a lawyer to actually help us understand these terms. Every app, website, or new technology has a programmed terms and conditions policy that is constantly trapping people and stealing their privacy. Some people would think that its everyone’s fault for not reading these terms thoroughly, but it would take one month every year to read all user agreements. Which for the majority is baffling to even consider. Companies could have you accept anything, for example Instagram taking your photos without giving you credit or compensation. AT&T could tap your phone to prevent illegal activities, and cookies learn information about you and send ads. Those are just a few ways people are tapping into our privacy through technology. In 2001 bills were trying to be passed to protect privacy laws. Of course none of those bills were passed. Privacy policies are now used to take away privacy. Google users used to be anonymous and then through out the years they kept updating their terms and conditions to the point that now they can share any information on our account with domain administrators, for external processing, or for legal issues. Google hid and lied about their previous policies which makes you wonder what else they’re hiding. People also like what’s free and they’re willing to give up their private information for it. In 2009 Facebook changed its policy without notice, and throughout the years Facebook default settings have made it more public and less private. Overall our search records are becoming more public, companies are monitoring our every cell phone move, wiretapping programs are still out in the world, and sites can hand data to the government without people knowing it. Privacy is dead.

It is really scary to think that I myself have agreed to terms and conditions and things that I really had no idea what they were about. I have never actually sat down and read those. As they said in the video, really no one has actually read them, even the person writing them really has not. That was an obvious joke but it really made me think what I was really agreeing to when I enter a website. Sooner than later, they are going to have you agreeing to terms and conditions practically without you even knowing that you are. One fact that caught my eye during the video was that “250 billion dollars was lost in a year due to what was written in print.” That is an insane amount of money we are talking about here. Another thing that caught my eye was about Instagram. On Instagram terms and conditions it says that they can sell your photos. I have an Instagram and I did not know that they could take any of my photos and actually sell them without telling me, but they can. It is in their terms and conditions policy that I clearly did not read. I never really understood what “cookies” were on the internet until this video. Which makes sense to me why I will be on Facebook and an advertisement for EXPRESS shopping store will pop up. I online shop a lot and it makes sense why most of the ads that are shown are fashion related. It is crazy to me that the internet knows so much about me, more than half of the people that I know based upon my searches online. It really makes me think, “Do I really have privacy?” I don’t believe privacy exist in this world today. There are many reasons why I think that. First off, our safety. Safety comes first in America and well honestly, I agree with it. The internet is a different world. Some people believe that if you post something and delete it, it is gone forever. Meanwhile, it is there and will ALWAYS be there, you just cannot see it yourself. Is our personal data worth that much to the government? Yes. I think the more they know about people the easier it is for them to keep us safe. The kind of world we live in today is a world where anything can happen at any time. The more the know I think is better off for us. I don’t believe we will ever have privacy on the internet or using any kind of technology device. I think if you want privacy you need to stay off technology, stay off the internet and do things to old fashion way. TALK!! That is something that us humans do not seem to know how to do anymore. The internet has really taken over the world and it is most definitely not a private world.

In today’s world, there are so many times that we have an agreement to sign.  This can range anywhere from iTunes, Facebook, Amazon, and even for things like buying a house or car.  With agreements coming up so often in our lives, half the time we don’t even care to read what it says.  We think it will never affect us anyway.  We are wrong to think it will never affect us.  It could be affecting us right now and we not even realize it.  There could be someone out there going through every purchase we made or every single letter we typed on our phone.  Does this sound like privacy to you? We have a serious privacy problem on our hands and if we don’t do something about it soon, it will be too late to ever turn back.  We have things like the Patriot Act that gives the government permission to seize information to try to fight against terrorism.  Although this can be seen as a good thing to some people, it is clearly not a good thing.  This is just like the situation Apple is facing right now.  They have to face the fact that if they give up information to try to help the FBI out, they could lose a lot of their customers because their customers wouldn’t feel safe anymore with Apple having all their information.  This isn’t the only thing that Apple is facing.  If Apple gives in to the FBI that will cause an avalanche of other companies that think it is okay to share your private information just because Apple did.  A few years ago, Facebook started changing its privacy policies to start publicly sharing your private information without the users knowing.  By 2010, everything but your contact information and your birthday were shared publicly to everyone.  That is a complete violation of our rights and privacy as American citizens.   In this movie, they made a great point about deleting things that I had never even thought of before.  They said that when you delete something that was out on the internet,  It only deletes it from you being able to see that it is out there.  It is still sitting somewhere, probably in Utah, in some data warehouse just waiting till the day it can be used or sold.  This is not comforting to me at all.  I know there are sometimes when I accidentally delete something and would love to get it back, but if I am trying to delete something of of the  internet that I don’t deem worthy to be out their in reference to me, I want it gone for good! The NSA has been looking at our information for years and none of us even knew about it or would have ever known about it until the people came out and told us or we got a knock on our door.  This scares me a little.  We could be just like that little boy who was just trying to look out for the president and wined up getting a visit from the secret service instead.  That probably crushed that little kid.  He was just trying to be nice and then he gets interrogated and accused of something he never would have even thought of in a million years.  The privacy standards in our society are well below the acceptable level and its just going to get worse from here unless somebody steps up and does something.  Privacy will remain dead unless the behavior tendencies of the intelligence agencies that collect all this data change.  Just like the guy in the movie said, we hop in one CM at a time thence look back and we are sinking with no way out.  If we don’t change soon, there will be no way out and our privacy will be completely compromised.

 

 

The age of new media has greatly changed the definition of privacy.  With almost everything being digitized in the current state of society, people have lost a great deal of privacy because others have access to their information.  At the same time, though, people generally do not read terms and conditions and in doing so, blindly grant outside parties this access.  People agree to the privacy policy and give up their rights to privacy when checking “I agree.”  It is easy for companies to sneakily insert policies that give them permission to see and use information that, had people known these policies were in the terms and conditions, people would not have agreed to in the first place.

Take, for instance, the Patriot Act, which gave the government permission to take surveillance of emails, information on the Internet, and cell phones in an effort to combat terrorism.  This brings to mind the kind of Big Brother state of society as expressed in George Orwell’s 1984, in which the government spies on its citizens.  It begs the question: how far is too far?  With the introduction and growth of Facebook, people have been confronted with the issue of sharing too much information that can be accessed by unwanted third parties.  Facebook also secretly changed its privacy policy, and by default, a user’s information is shared with everyone.

Why would the default be to share information on Facebook with everyone?  Most users would like to share with just their friends, yet Facebook does not account for this in their default settings.  One would hope that companies have people’s best interests in mind when creating user experiences, and privacy is more than a mere preference; it is a right.  It seems that new media, however, makes privacy more susceptible to being treated as an idealistic preference.

Ultimately, people value different information for different reasons.  It is a personal decision to allow for certain pieces of information to be made available to others and in what ways they are available.  It is plain to see that searches are monitored, for searching for a particular product on Amazon will later prompt an ad for that product when visiting a different website.  In this way, companies are using data about our Internet habits to draw conclusions about us and act on it.  The NSA also had access to people’s personal data, which shows just how many hands data can be put into without our knowledge.

“Terms and Conditions May Apply” prompted thought about what privacy means in the age of new media.  Although Mark Zuckerberg justified some of his questionable actions by saying that he wanted to “create a more open society,” society does not necessarily want to be as open as he is suggesting.  The idea of de-anonymizing private searches takes search tracking to a whole new level that prowls farther into our personal lives.  Ultimately, privacy as we once knew it does not exist.  Now, privacy means that perhaps some people do not have access to information, but there is a good chance that some others do.

What information can ethnographic tools give you to improve the interactivity of an online banking website? 

Ethnographic tools help the interaction designers recognize and know their audience better. They improve and help you gather the data about your customer base to improve the designs. These tools are used by observing, interviewing and analyzing people. This understanding would ultimately create a better experience.

 

At what point is a design finished? What makes it a success? What is its purpose?

The design can be finished based on many different stages depending upon the project and how the designer sees it. When the project meets all the goals that are to be met and the outcome is an overall success. A design is finished when the designer feels like their work is all done. Whether or not a design is successful or not is subjective. If the project was a success depends on the designers. A design purpose depends on the person who is actually using it.

 

Identify a product family you use regularly. How has its branding effected your use, relationship and experience with the product? 

Personally, I would say google. I use google on a daily basis for everything and anything that I need to search for. Google is very reliable, therefore, I use it most often and use it before I would use any other search engine. Their site is fast paced and very easy to use. I also use Google Docs and Google drive on a daily basis to save all of my artwork. It hold and keeps safe all of my files and everything that I need to get in touch with on a daily basis. Google is very reliable.