Words Without Thought, Content Without Context - Blog Update Numero Tres

Living in the age of information makes it difficult to do anything without your information being put out on display; and as businesses expand along with technology, they learn more and more about us. It scares me to think one day I may not even be able to THINK something without a corporation somewhere knowing every detail of it. *shudders*

The most terrifying network intelligence for me would have to be my own private information - medical records, employment information, legal information, these sorts of things. I am a firm believer in the right to privacy, because if we claim everything should be made public then we are violating things like doctor-patient and attorney-client privilege. These things are private for a reason: so the government can't spy in its own citizens and drag them through the courts. So why is it acceptable for corporations to have access to anything at all about us? How long before they have unrestricted access to our credit card numbers and our bank accounts? And beyond the information itself, I fear the attainment methods. I don't go posting my health information online, so if some company knows what my doctor prescribed me they had to actually go through my medical records. That's not cool. There’s a reason I post very little personal information online; I don’t want it being used by anybody I don’t know. I'm fine with the collection of data about my spending habits, but when I start having to worry about what I can actually say I start to have a problem. I would never want any sort of companies to start learning about these private details, for myself or my family, for just that reason; the word 'private' does not mean "free to anyone who asks". It's quite the opposite. I would never want companies to start digging through my family’s social lives, finding out everybody they know or have ever met; I certainly don’t want them going through privileged information, or reading our emails. Simply put, I don’t want companies to know anything my family doesn’t outright tell them; they have no right to that information, and I’m certainly not interested in providing it for them.

As for what my personal context is... How long do I have? I'm a university student, a young adult male, who essentially keeps to himself with the exception of a few familiar city routes and shopping ventures. I have 1 credit card I use only on occasion and pay off promptly; and 2 debit cards, one of which I only use for the purposes of buying textbooks. I do use Facebook, but post very little personal information; I do not use other social media sites, and most websites I go by aliases. I never stray much from my comfort zone, and I'm task-oriented in my shopping.

Cybersex-ed - FINAL Article Presentation

Let's face it, half the students my age either had worthless sex ed classes in school or none at all. Apparently scientists have actually figured out what a waste of time it is, as researchers from U of T, Yale and some South American groups did a study on the merits of sex ed... online? Guess age 18 and up doesn't apply here, huh?

The study observed the effects of taking the course using 138 9th Graders from 69 ridings within 21 cities in Colombia as the test sample. The students spent 30 minutes a day on the associated site, performing interactive activities, as well as speak back and forth openly with questions and answers to a Profamilia tutor. The idea is that the anonymity and privacy the internet offers allows people to be more receptive on what is, at that age (and for many, most ages) a delicate subject. After 6 months of the course, there was a 10% increase in condom use and a lowered late of infections in the test batch. This proof of concept now offers the opportunity to implement similar programs in North America, as even with the lower rates of teen pregnancy and STIs, "There's still room for improvement," according to Dr. Gonzales-Navarro.

Of course, this also serves to highlight one of the things information systems do well; increase efficiency and effectiveness of information transfer. Through technology like the internet, information can be made available to anybody as desired, and presented in a meaningful way. The fact it does a better job than a classroom model comes from a combination of this and the privacy offered by this method. My only question is why it took scientists this long to use this method; after all, the internet is where most people my age had to learn about sex because of how bloody useless SexEd is in Canada. Just saying.

Article retrieved here. It's been fun, but it seems my article presentations are at an end. Ta-ra!