China New Information Gathering Idea Rejected By the U.S
Chinas new ideas promote gathering the information of tech companies users. The laws they are trying to in force require tech companies to turn over "snooping" mechanisms to the Chinese government. The United States is against the act of China trying to enforce laws to collect user data. China's inquiries are mainly about tech companies encryption keys to their codes for personal data. The sharing of user data can threaten the U.S of economic cyber espionage. In an interview Obama stated his concerns for China requiring tech companies to give personal data to their firms.
"This is something that I’ve raised directly with President Xi," Obama said. "We have made it very clear to them that this is something they are going to have to change if they are to do business with the United States." (BBC)
Obama spoke on cyber security and consumer protection at Stanford University. Obama felt it would be critical for any international company to prosper while collects data to keep track of user data. He stated, "I don't think there's any U.S or European firm, international firm that can get away with that whole sale turning over of data".
China is concerned with any possible threats from religious extremist or separatists. "Beijing has argued the need to quickly ratchet up its cybersecurity measures in the wake of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden's revelations of sophisticated U.S. spying techniques." (reuters.com)
Have
you ever thought of google as a quasi state, because that is what is
has become. In 2010 the New York Times wrote an article called “Google
Searches for a Foreign Policy”. This concept of google having a foreign
policy is still relevant today. The most recent example would be the
current hype around the Muslim “hate” video. The article written over
two years ago discusses the idea that companies like google need to have
a foreign policy for the US government has yet to come up with a solid
foreign policy in the digital world. This is still true today. The
article brings up a very good point,
“...the
fact that the World Wide Web is no longer just a force for freedom and
diversity but also a tool for repression. Governments use it to spy on
dissidents, human rights activists, and other troublesome elements.This
change happened so fast that it left the foreign policy establishment
gasping to catch up”
It
seems that companies like Google should be sitting at the tale with
government leaders writing foreign policies and deciding what
information should be free and to whom. Does everyone realise that a
corporate company, where there are no elected officials and no
representation by the people has the control over our freedoms!
People can be whoever they want to be behind the computer screen. It's a fun part of the digital revolution, but it also has it downsides. Plainly and simply, you never truly know who you are talking to when you are communicating with someone through the computer. Sure, we've all heard the horror stories about people meeting up with predators and rapists; but when those horrifying matters aren't happening, something else is happening. People have developed 'technology' personalities--personalities that are different from how they actually act in person.
"College students on Facebook and other online social networks often augment what they regard as their best personal qualities. Students’ actual personality descriptions may have included enhancements of their real characteristics, thus inflating the correlation between observers’ ratings and students’ real personalities." - Adriana Manago, a psychology graduate student at UCLA who studies college students' interactions in online social media. (Article Here)
We get it. Everybody wants to look good to potential boyfriends or girlfriends, and some things are easier to say behind a screen than they are in person, but where should we draw the line? When do we stop and ask, "Okay, who exactly are you?" Are these 'technology personalities' going to ultimately change how we interact with one another forever?
"Once upon a time, social interaction was bounded by space; we met only in person. But then communication became mediated by technology. From telegraph to telephone to email to Twitter, each innovation fed the same anxieties, as people worried that traditional forms of community were being destroyed. The telephone was ruining family life; we’re neglecting our real friends for our so-called friends on Facebook." says Jonah Lehrer, a blogger for the Frontal Cortex on Wired.com's science blog. (Is Facebook Ruining Human Relationships?)
My feelings are pessimistic when it comes to this situation. People are more concerned with how they appear online than how they appear in general. And people are perplexed as to why people sometimes say things over texts that they would never say in person. When my friends and I are out and we take photos, some quickly rush to review them afterwards to see if they're 'Facebook worthy' or if it could be their new profile picture. Or when a friend meets somebody new and goes on a date with them, they'll sometimes return with the review of the date saying, "Oh he was much more fun while we were texting, but in person he's nothing special." What is this non-sense? We're so wrapped up in this technology world that it's changing our life concerns and the way we interact with each other as human beings. I personally do not have a Facebook and hate texting for these reasons.
Now. We all know we have many stresses in life (bills, work, school work etc)--we have no time for extraneous stresses such as Facebook and it's a bit outlandish that people are actually letting it cause problems for them in their non-virtual lives. The population on Facebook is letting this network take over their lives by letting it corrupt their days because they can now keep tabs on if they're ex is seeing a new woman or if your best friend really stayed in last night like she said she did. These are irrelevant, ridiculous things that do not need to be worried about and these worries are distracting us from doing the more important things in life. This generation is in trouble if we don't get it together and establish who we really are, who we're really dealing with or what's truly important in our relationships.
From the classroom to the newsroom there has been an upheaval in the way we gather, process and share facts. Both education and the news business are under a new media siege. This week we will examine the positive and negative consequences for both students and citizens as they discover the new mediated truth of the digital revolution.
Here's the rundown of our webcast:
Online Learning: Pros and Cons
YouTube Skills: DIY learning online
Classroom Tools: New tech for students
Tech Divide in the Classroom: Does your child have an iPad?
Has the Internet Pulled the Plug on the News Business?
Blogging and Tweeting the News
Next Week: New Media Economics 101: What is the Digital Economy Anyway?
Listen to our webcast streaming live every Thursday @ 11am EST.
Can't listen live? Our next webcast will be posted by 2:00pm, Thursday, October 6.
Charles M. Blow has a op-ed in the New York Times: "The Kindling of Change" featuring this fabulous graphic comparing measures of development and especially internet access across the region (Click on the link or the image for a higher resolution pop-up):
Economic Inteligence Unit: Use this resource from the Economist magazine to learn about the nation and region (You will have to set up a free account for access.) Check out their "Democracy Index 2010," to learn about the state of the political system of the nation under scrutiny.
Miniwatts Marketing Group: internetworldstats.com: This corporate site compiles statistics about interet usage around the world. Their statistics " come mainly from data published by Nielsen Online,ITU, WWW, and other trustworthy local sources"
Municipal wi-fi is a connection to a wireless web access through a network, With the goals of making access to the internet a universal service. Municipalities are spending millions of dollars on city wide networks targeting low cost for the wireless access but providing fast service. Wi-fi projects went sky rocket increasing dramatically it went from 50% to more than 300 nationwide. The united states market would experience year to year growth rates.
Not only is wireless connection increasing in homes its increasing in public facilities. No more commuting back and forth trying to find someone else connection and trying to use it. Wi-fi is now in public facilities. There are approximately over 605 free hot spots in the New York metropolitan area. Some popular hot spots are, Mc Donald’s, colleges campuses, bookstores, airports, hotels, and star bucks which is a very popular hot spot that has millions of customers come not only to consume coffee but also to sit and enjoy the web at the same time. There is also free wi-fi access at New York public park, which is sponsored by time Warner, and cable vision. This network is expanded and advancing every day.
What makes Bangalore a global hotspot in the digital revolution?
Global Media: Digital Revolution is proud to present our first webcast of this season. Digital Revolution News took a virtual trip to Bangalore to learn about the global digital divide.
