Victim Privacy

In the Newsweek article "When Rape Goes Viral," I was most surprised by the willingness and even eagerness of perpetrators to post their crimes online as photos or videos. Whether or not the posting of these videos and photos is a good thing is very complicated and multifaceted. Of course, I think it is important to bring anyone who has committed a sex crime to justice. When a video of a crime goes viral via social media, the likelihood of a conviction is heightened greatly. At the same time, is a perpetrator being brought to justice worth the further violation of privacy to the crime's victim? I don't think it is.

When a video of a crime goes viral online, it allows for a lot of negative attention to all parties involved. Focusing on the victim, it was noted in the article that people will post victim-blaming comments. These comments can be read by anyone and certainly could stay with a victim for their entire lives. Generally speaking, videos and photographs of murders are not passed around on Facebook. Why should media of sexual crimes be different?

GPS Location Tracking

I think the first large distinction to make in using GPS tracking chips in people is whether the use is voluntary or required. Generally speaking, people should be able to make decisions for themselves. If a parent wants to track their children or if a caretaker wants to track an Alzheimer's patient, it is their role to make decisions on behalf of the potentially tracked party. If a parent wants to implant their child to be able to track them, I see little difference from the GPS shoes because a child generally has a single pair of shoes.

Risks of placing a GPS chip in a person include loss of privacy to anyone who possesses technology capable of reading the chips. To work, the chips would have to contain personally identifiable information. The information could even include access to additional information on previous locations the chip had been tracked to. This information in the wrong hands could pose a serious threat to the safety of children. I think the possibility of using the information for stalking also exists.

A reasonable benefit of using these chips would locating lost or abducted children. Focusing on abducted children, I think any captor with basic knowledge of the chip system would just remove the chip from the child, which is further hazardous to the health and safety of the child.

To make a sweeping comment, I don't believe in implanting any humans with a tracking device, but I believe individuals should be able to do so with a privately company if they desire to do so. Their safety decisions are up to them. Needless to say, I would not support a law in Congress mandating the implant of a chip in children.

First CS408 Post

I'm currently enrolled in Computer Science course 408, Living in a Networked World. I've taken a break from reading our textbook to make this first post.