The Internet reinforces a surveillance society

   In The Future of Reputation Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet, Solove talks about how the Internet changes our lives in the view of information. According to him, “The more freedom people have to spread information online, the more likely that people’s private secrets will be revealed in ways that can hinder their opportunities in the future (5).” In addition, Solove shows some actual occurrences in which online information changes people’s lives in his article. One of the examples is about a fifteen-years-old boy from Canada. Someone uploaded the video he filmed himself without his permit.　Due to it, people in all over the world watched it and he was made fun from them (44-46). In the end, “he dropped his high school and had to seek psychiatric care (47). ”  Most people have mobile equipment, for example a smart phone and laptop. It means that everyone has some tools to be able to send information through the Internet to the whole world. In other words, everyone can become an online reporter and commentator. At the same time, everyone can be watched by others, can be an object to be written about, and people can criticize others easily. In short, Solove points out the Internet seems to make our life rich because of the flow of information, but, on the other hand, it creates a surveillance society and threatens our privacy.

   People are watched are not only in the real world, but also in online world. When we see a site, the browsing history is stored and people who run the site and professional companies can see and use it. However, there are people trying to oppose this situation in which Internet users are watched by others. In TED 2012:New Browser Add-On Visualizes Who Is Tracking You Online, one of these people Kovacs invented a tool named “Collusion”, which can “depict［］ the number and different types of sites that are tracking your browsing as you surf the web”. If you use Collusion, Internet users can see who is watching their browsing histories. In other words, people who were watched one-sidedly will be able to become watchers by using it.

   This is a remarkable movement, because people’s position on Internet can be changed. Although a person has been an object being watched by others until now, a person might be able to watch others in near future. However, Collusion is not yet fully implemented. That is why people still have to pay attention about online privacy and how they use the Internet. In a digital society, caring about privacy is the only way people can protect themselves. At the same time, people have to think about the morality of uploading things about other people. People use social network sites to communicate with their friends and they don’t feel like sending information to the world. People have to distinguish between the digital world and real world, and should think about the risk and morals of the Internet.