Chapter 13 Summary:
Anonymity on the internet has its ups and downs. A benefit is that you can raise awareness of social issues without the risking your own safety. A negative side to anonymity is the disconnect it causes between people, and the potential cause for problems that comes with talking to someone that you may not know.
Privacy has also become a huge issue with using the internet. Everything you have ever said in a chat room or emailed to a professor is stored in a database somewhere and can be accessed by authorities if needed, or by hackers if they should so desire to want that information. Web sites are also able to collect your personal information and sell it off to other companies for profit. Many people do not understand why companies are able to sell their information, but most of the time it is spelled out in the terms of agreement when you use a web site, and most always nobody reads the those terms and are oblivious to the fact that their information is being sold. Another issue of privacy is that companies can access their employees personal email files, and depending on what they have been emailing or visiting for internet sites can be fired from their jobs.
Another issue with internet usage today is the protection of copyrighted material. This was a huge problem back in 1999 and 2000 when Napster hit the scene and millions of people started downloading songs for free. The recording industry fought hard to stop Napster from allowing people to share and download music, and when taken to court Napster essentially went out of business. This led to Lawrence Lessig's model that recognizes four constraints that regulate behavior in cyberspace. The law, norms, the market, and software architecture all play a role in what we can and cannot do on the internet.
Questions:
1. Do you agree with the libertarian view of cyberspace or the communitarian view? Why?
2. Should companies be able to look into your private email account without your consent? And if they find something they do not like should they be able to fire you for "unacceptable" content?
1. I believe in the libertarian view under a certain extent. I think people should be able to write and post what they want understand certain rules. Profanity or anything inappropriate should not be allowed on the internet. Cyberbullying also should not be allowed. People have the right of free speech but if people are not allowed to speak out about their own opinions than we really are not living by the first amendment.
ReplyDelete2. I do not think companies should be able to look at private emails because that is an evasion of privacy. I do think they have the right to look through employee email account because if something is not right in that account than that is when something unacceptable comes into play because it is directly aimed on the employee and the company. Private email should be only allowed for the receivers eyes only. Reading personal emails have nothing to do with your job.
1. I agree with the libertarian view of cyberspace. I think that users should be permitted to post whatever they want on the internet without fear of retaliation. The case of the California couple being tried in Tennessee over their website content is ridiculous, it should be illegal to view this material in Tennessee and permitted elsewhere as the law allows it to. Regulating the content of the internet is an tedious task that would never end.
ReplyDelete2. Companies should not be allowed to look into private email accounts. Companies that do look into the private email accounts of employees are committing an invasion of privacy. If a company would like to monitor the email service used within the workplace, I have no problem with this. If the service is being provided to the employee by the company, this makes it company property and gives the company the right to do whatever they please with it.
1. I do believe in the libertarian view of cyberspace. The internet is meant to be a space where people can freely express themselves. If you do not like what a page has, or what someone posts then you can easily navigate to another site. In real life you can't easily remove yourself from a situation where you are offended or uncomfortable but on the internet you control what you see and how long you stay or view a page. I believe in no censorship of the internet. The internet is a place where a person can exercise their freedom of speech and expression the most. The anonymity factor as well as the multiple cultures present make the internet a very important method of communication that should remain unadulterated.
ReplyDelete2. I believe a company has the right to monitor what you do on their time, using their tools. If you sent an email from your private laptop but using the internet they provide, then to some extent I do believe they have a right to see what you are doing. If you use your cell phone but use your carriers internet then that is yours that you have paid for and they cannot look at it. If you use company email, then your company has the right to view each and every email you send as it is their property, their name on the email and signature. I do agree that they should be able to fire you if deemed that what you did using their property, their software, their hardware, and their name, is a misuse or negative, or against their rules and regulations. Everyone signs an technology use policy if their job entails the use of technology. You should have read it because you signed it.
1. I would agree with the libertarian view on cyberspace. You know the rules whenever you are doing or posting online, or at least you should. There are age gates set up, and rules and agreements you are supposed to read to get into anything that you shouldn't. With many sites that you have to make accounts on, you have to go through the same process of clicking that little box next to rules and agreement, and the other one. No one should be upset when people are doing with stuff that you said they could do with, like sell your info. The amount of money and man power to regulate the internet would be so overwhelming that it would never get started. Yes, I do agree there should be more "walls" to get though when going to certain sites (porn) other then just "please enter your date of birth.' I would have to agree with what the UK is doing with its internet access to these sites. The people who own the internet would have to opt-in to having Pornographic sites unlocked from their networks. It would be the easiest way to help fight that problem.
ReplyDelete2. Companies should not be able to do this. To my knowledge, whenever you are hired at a company, they provide you with your own email address that they can monitor, just like St. Ambrose does. I would say it would have to depend on what they find. If its something that is against the law, then yes, but is not I feel that it shouldn't be allowed to fire you. Going back to my first sentence, this is why they give you your own email so you shouldn't be a doing personal things with it.
1. I believe in the communitarian view. I do not agree with the libertarian view which is “that individuals rather than the government should establish the norms for online behavior” (p.276). I do not like this view because I feel what is right for one person and is acceptable for one person could be not acceptable for another. Just like laws, some people love to drive fast whereas, others like to drive slow. But since the laws are established by congress, and other law making bodies, the whole community has a say. If one person can establish individual laws many problems can happen. The communitarian view which basically makes sure the whole community has a say and the deciding factor on the regulations of the internet. I believe it is all about the community as a whole, and the community should set the internet standards.
ReplyDelete2. Although some might feel that employers should not be able to filter emails, I think they should be able to. For many different reasons such as the endangerment of other workers, or even not working while you are supposed to be. What I mean by this is that if you are supposed to be only using your work email for work then why you would care if your employer sees what you are doing. The other fact of security, after 9/11 former President Bush passed the patriot act which allows the government to filter through the internet, phone calls, emails, and computer contacts. So if your employer is the government or suspects you of terrorist activities then you should have your email contents seen. In terms of Hall and Bourke I don’t think they should have been fired though because they just received sexually explicit emails, but if they were sending emails too then they should be fired if that is the companies policy. I think what the text said is spot on, it said that the people shouldn’t think that an email is like a sealed letter, because it isn’t and everything you put in email is saved on a server.
1. I agree with the libertarian view of cyberspace more than communitarian. I think if people start letting go of their own rights as an individual, and what they can or can’t do, then the less they will be able to do from then on. I think once people let the government or other community values start playing into their own rights, then it is a slippery slope because it is very slim that you will gain those rights back. Instead, I think the individual will lose more and more of their own rights as people let other things govern what they can do. The biggest thing about online communication is you need to know when to draw the line for your online behavior. I think we should be able to know enough when to draw the line instead of having someone else do it for us.
ReplyDelete2. I do not think a company should be able to look into a private account unless it is the company’s account. If I worked at IBM I would probably use my IBM e-mail strictly for business, and to me, that would be okay for them to look at. However a “private” e-mail like my yahoo one or anything else would not be okay because that is a personal account without any business related things attached. Therefore, they do not have a right to look into my private e-mail since it has no strings attached to the business. I think a business e-mail would be okay to check because it might be useful for them in times of crisis, or problem solving. However anything unrelated to business I believe is an invasion of personal privacy.
1. I partially agree with the libertarian view of cyberspace. The internet is meant for freedom of speech where people can express their views and opinions without the fear of government intervention but it should include restrictions. I believe there should be no harm where one person intentionally harms another. It’s hard to put regulation on the internet without decreasing the ‘freedom of speech’. Once laws are put in place it restricts users from potentially expressing their thoughts or opinions violating their First Amendment. Viewing content should be the user’s choice and it should be up to the user if he or she wants to view the content. This way it puts the responsibility on the individuals to decide to view the content, not the content producer.
ReplyDelete2. Companies should be able to view email accounts given to their employees without their consent. They however should not be allowed to view the employees private email accounts. Company email accounts are owned by the company and the employee is in sense are using their product. The employees private email account is not owned by the company and any communication between the employee and the receiver should be kept secret. If the employee is using the companies email account, the employee is using the company’s name and is representing the company. This work email should only be used for work purpose not a personal email. If the employee gets fired for tarnishing the company’s image by using the work email, the employee is most likely breaking the terms of service set in place. I do not think the employee should get fired for using a personal email since the company should not be allowed to view their emails. If the employee does get fired I believe this is invasion of privacy.
1. I agree mostly with the libertarian view of cyberspace, although there is a lot of blurred lines when it comes to freedom of speech and the internet, which has made creating laws to protect speech online difficult. I think that most of the norms about what is right and wrong offline apply to how people should interact online. As an example, profanity is not typically allowed in educational places such as schools or libraries offline, so if someone is using a networking tool that is primarily used for educational purposes than they should know to keep their language non-offensive to the others online. However, I think that the internet is a place for people to be able to feel safe in voicing their opinions freely, however I think there is still a place for everything.
ReplyDelete2. I think that it would be completely unacceptable for an employer to look into your private e-mail without your consent, and it would be especially wrong for them to fire you over something they found if they did in fact invade their employees privacy that way. I think however it would be acceptable for an employer to let an employee know that there would be consequences for using their personal e-mail while on the companies time if it is so laid out that they are not allowed to do so in their contract or company policies. Personally I feel that a person's private email should be for the purpose only of completing tasks for their personal life which should be kept separate from their works tasks which should be accomplished through a work email. However, I feel that it is appropriate for an employer to monitor an email account that they have given to their employees since it is owned and operated by them and they are providing the email as a tool to aid their employers in successfully completing their job tasks for the employer, and should only be used for such tasks.