Privacy and Surveillance

Reading 1: A Location Sharing Disaster Shows Where You Really Are 

This article is about a security breach in phones, but in regard to the location tracking services on phones. The article introduces service named Secures that allowed a sheriff to track location in real time without having permission or a court order to do so. The service essentially never checks legal documents of those wanting to track and allows you to track anyone in the U.S. at any given point. The article also mentioned that the four major U.S. phone carriers sell location data which I thought was very shocking. I feel like we usually think of others hacking into our devices to receive our location, but it sounds like for some we are essentially giving our location rights away through these carriers. I found this article very interesting and it gave quite a lot of insight about how regardless if we are using location sharing apps most likely someone has our location and is already tracking us, which is honestly scary. 

Reading 2: The NASA Reportedly Has Total Access to the Apple iPhone

This article is about the leakage of NSA documents the unveiled that the agency had been rerouting laptops in order to install malicious hardware and spyware of the devices. There are also reports about the company that they have access to all iPhone data through a developed program called DROPOUTJEEP. This software is essentially planted in the phones and then is able to access and push and pull files from the devices. This can include a large variety of things from texts, to voicemails, photos, contacts, location, microphone access and several other aspects. The company has not only tapped into iPhones but also androids and blackberry devices. I found this article to be very interesting and engaging. I was honestly kind of shocked that this isn’t being talked about more. As technology is advancing more and more of our personal data is on our phones, and if there are already large security concerns it makes me questions how we are going to prevent this when phones continue to become more advanced. 

Technology application: 

The technology example that I think applies to both reading is the Find My Friendsapp on iPhones. This is a location sharing app where you are able to share your location with your friends, so they can track where you are at and you can do the same. If the Nasa has “total” access to iPhones, they are able to access this as well as the several services mentioned in article one because that information is essentially being handed over when we purchase the phone. Find My Friendsis an app that I use very frequently, I think I have upwards of 50+ friends’ locations on the app, and I know this is something many of my friends use. I mainly use it to see where my best friends are, and we tend to track each other when we go out on the weekends. Though we are giving our phone carriers access to where we are at, I don’t think that many people using the app even realize the information they are giving away. I think there are many cons that come with using the app for security reasons, but I also think there are some positives. For example, you are able to track where your friends are so in case something happens to them when they are out on a Friday night you are able to see where they are and go get them if need be. 

Technology Example: 

The technology example I chose relates to several things we have mentioned in class, but the largest one I want to focus on is social media. Find My Friendsis one form of having access to a large number of peers/friend’s location, but you have to request permission to do so. On social media platforms such as Snapchat there is lower security because you just turn your location on and your hundreds of friends on the app have access to it. There can also be location information leaked through Instagram and Facebook when people tag their current location in their posts it allows their followers or even strangers if their accounts are public to see exactly where they are. Overall, this relates to mobile media because it is all about the security breaches that mobile media can bring. Our society has turned to use social media as a point where people feel they have to constantly post and share where they are/what they are doing, which makes it very easy for location tracking to happen as well as security issues. 

Discussion questions: 

1. Does the breached security of phones make you more cautious of how you use your phone or what you post on social media? 
2. Do you think if there was some sort of law against selling personal data this would help lower the security breach risks we are currently facing?  
3. Do you use location tracking apps, such as find my friends? Have you ever thought about the impact sharing your location could have on your security? 

After reviewing this week’s reading materials, I learned a lot more about the technology I use on a daily basis, like my phone. I have an iPhone 8+ currently and have been and iPhone user for many years now. I have not really explored all of the features on my phone though until diving deeper through this assignment. I thought a lot of the features on my phone were there to make things more convenient to use and faster to display information and material. I learned that most accessibility features on the iPhone are not for preference, but they are to help those with disabilities better use their mobile devices. This is not something I had considered because it isn’t something that affects myself. I gained a lot of knowledge and a better understanding of how mobility is different for everyone. 

The first accessibility feature I looked into on my mobile device was reduce transparency. This feature is used to blur out content to help better create depth and visibility. This feature can be accessed by locating settings, general, accessibility and then reduce transparency. The goal of this feature is to increase legibility. I found this feature very helpful, since I turned it on for the purposes of this assignment. I wear glasses and contacts and when I am not wearing them sometimes my eyes struggle to focus on my electronic screens. I found this to be a very helpful feature that has benefitted the use of my phone. Overall, this accessibility feature is a small change that has made a great impact on my usage, and I think it could also help others with poor eyesight have more readability! 

The second accessibility feature I explored was the zoom feature. This feature is accessed through settings, general, accessibility, and then zoom. I turned this feature on for a night when I had a lot of emails to respond to through the Gmail app on my phone. This feature allowed me to better see what I was doing and read the small print at a more efficient rate. I think I could see myself using this feature again in the future when I have a lot of reading or tedious tasks to do on my phone. I think for accessibility purposes this is largely important for those of an older generation using small technology devices. I know that my parents and some of older generations I know sometimes struggle being able to type or read because the text is small on the device. This feature helps greatly with this and can definitely help those who need more help seeing what is on their screen. It’s also cool because within the feature there are three different ways of how you can use it. You can double tap three fingers to zoom, drag three fingers to move around the screen. And double tap/drag three fingers to zoom. I found this feature to be very accessible and easy to use and something of a great benefit for those who need more helping seeing their screen. 

The final feature I looked at was the voice recording portion in the text feature of an iPhone. This is located on the right side of the text bar, and the settings for it are under general settings, accessibility, speech, and then speech selection. I attached a photo of the feature in uses rather than where to find it. Personally, I use this feature when I am in a rush and want to send a longer text but don’t have the time to type it out. I have also had friends use this feature on their phone and computer to type out papers when they are having trouble focusing, because this allows them to talk it out to collect their thoughts. For accessibility purposes this feature is very cool though. It allows users who have arthritis, turrets, or a learning disability to better text and communicate. It is easier for most who struggle with this to speak rather than type which makes this feature the best way for them to use your phone. This is one of the easiest to use and largely beneficial features I found through this assignment. It gave me appreciation because I use it just when I’m lazy, but for some this is their preferred method of communication.

Discussion questions: 

1. Many of these accessibility features are taken for granted, if they were not here how would people with disabilities be excluded from using phones? 
2. Do you think that most in our society just want the easiest and most accessible way to use technology? 
3. How can we make phones more accessible?

Reading 1: The Mobile Media Reader

This reading was in regard to the evolution and change that has happened with reading and the mobility of it over time. The article traced back the history of the book to the Jews and then Arabs. The book itself went from scroll to codex then leading to mass production. In most societies books started out for the elite but have now become readily available to almost all in most modern societies. I found out that books were the first form of mobile media which I found very interesting. The advancement of how mobile reading and e-books has evolved heavily since 2007. This now includes apps, readers and reading compatibility on almost every device. E-readers broadened mobile media through wireless distribution of not only books but also magazines, articles, and the news. As mobile media and technology has developed so has the concept of the book. Though the article focuses a lot on the mobile media side of books it also talks about how the traditional book is still very apparent and hasn’t seen a large decrease. Overall, I gained a lot from this article, including that the book hasn’t been replaced through our media. Rather the book has adjusted and grown with our use of technology to something more user friendly. 

Reading 2: Collecting Space and Place in Mobile Media 

This reading is about the global positioning systems that we have in mobile phone. It’s all about understanding mobile location-based media and remapping spaces. Geo-location has made it so that online users can update their status’s, photo locations and constantly be posting where they are at location wise at all time. This can be both good and bad depending on the circumstances. The reading also focused a lot on an app called Foursquare which I found very interesting because this is something I hadn’t heard of before. The location-based app allows users to essentially explore a city and unlock and discover new things the more you and your friends use it. It’s a social media type platform where you can earn different things by checking into more places. In the app the map doesn’t allow you to zoom in or out to see what is nearby and it doesn’t really allow much discovery. I found the app very interested and not something I personally would use because I think it could be dangerous. Users have to frequently check into locations based on where they are making it easier for someone on the internet to always know where you are. I really enjoyed reading this because I found it very thought provoking. 

Technology Application:

I think that both of the articles are very different but connect in the broader sense because I chose to read about the mobility of the e-reader as well as global position in mobile media. I think largely both can connect to tablets and smaller hand-held devices. I-Pads for example allow not only the use of e-books but also global positioning services. The device comes with predownloaded Apple apps for both iBooks and maps. Through the book app you can download books, and audio books. And the maps app is the same as on most Apple devices allowing you to find locations of places, yourself and receive directions. The iPad also allows you to download other e-reading and location-based media apps such as the pre-loaded find my friends app and games like Pokémon Go. Overall, I think this device encompasses a lot of the qualities from both the different forms of mobile media in a large-scale aspect. 

Technology Example: 

The technology example I chose largely applies to class, because iPad and other hand-held tablet devices are widely used within our media consumers. This allows consumers to surf and scroll through the web and other social media apps on a larger screen. It’s a bigger version of a phone but a smaller version of a computer. Applying this to mobile media technology is easy because when developing most advancing apps or platforms they need to be user friendly on larger devices. I think the device encompasses most of what we have talked about so far this semester!

Discussion Questions: 

• Have you seen a downhill trend in the number of physical books being read in society since most things have gone digital? 
• Eventually do you think the use of physical bound books will start to decrease on a large scale? 
• Do you think location-based technology hinders our online safety? 

Reading 1: Short History of Mobile Communication 

This article is about the history of cell phones and the start of this new technology. What stuck out to me with this article was the way the initial radio cell was used and how it processed calls. Essentially if someone was traveling between two cell towers the phone receiving the message would have to wait to receive it until there was a strong enough connection. Now this is something we wouldn’t even think twice about. The article also talked about the development of the radio and how that helped form the evolution of cellphones. Radio usage and development started when it was needed for shipping purposes which I found interesting. Wireless communication for ships became apparent during the Titanic sinking because it sent out radio signals which didn’t go off because at the time the ships didn’t have 24-hour signals. This in turn led to 24-hour radio communication. Radio communication plays a large part in the history of cellphones because that’s what it is; one phone using phone towers to send a signal to connect to another cellphone. This example in the article really helped my understanding of the basic functions of early phones. Overall, I liked how the article broke down the history through the different technologies that led to the phone, because it gave me a better understanding of how the process works and how a phone truly functions. 

Reading 2: Making Voice Portable: the early history of the cell phone 

This article is all about the start of phones and cell phones. It touches on the history and how telegraphs were what started and emerged into the now phone system. The invention of the telephone had many involving factors but two of the largest contributors that stuck out were Alexander Graham Bell and AT&T. It was very cool to see that AT&T had such a large contribution to the industry with their basis of telegraphs because this is still one of the largest phone companies. At the end of the 19^thcentury telegraphy had already become a form of global communication and helped give lead way to globalization such as colonialism and imperialism. The mobility of the phone arose in the late 19^thcentury leading to the cellphone and by 1914 one percent of the telephone population was in the United States. I found it very interesting how fast the phone market truly expanded globally. I also found it notable that the article talked a bit about how the phones were first used for social aspects rather than business. I feel like with how elaborate phones are now and how large the user demographic is that it has converted back to that and a large portion of users use it for sociability once again. 

Technology Application:

Both of the articles are directly related to cell phones. As I have experienced as well as learned through this week’s readings the evolution of cellphones has changed significantly over the years. They have evolved into a lot more than the physical cellphone. Now you can have your phone connected to multiple different devices if you have an iPhone, such as an Apple Watch, iPad and your laptop. The evolution of this marketing rapidly growing and changing is very connected to how quickly the telegraph evolved into a phone. Your phone can be connected to many other things like your car and your home so even when you don’t have your phone with you, you have the ability to socialize and connect with others through so many other devices. It all relates back to the basis of why the telegraph was created and how early phones were used to be social with one another. 

Technology Example: 

I think that the technology example I chose greatly applies to the class. Cellphones are a large factor of mobile media and I think with out cellphones mobile media wouldn’t be what it is today. I think some of the other factors I mentioned such as Apple Watches and iPads have also become a source of mobile media for some when their phone is out of reach. I think being able to look at all of the accessible mobile media factors will help grow a larger understanding of how large mobile media truly is. I think that looking back on the history of cellphones and being able to expand into what they have become really give a better perspective on how to target audiences through mobile media.

Discussion Questions: 

• Has the evolution of phones strengthened or hindered social communication? 
• Has cell phone technology and smartphones evolved into a societal preference?  
• Do you think that the younger generations are becoming largely impacted by the use of cellphones? 

Hi! My name is Emily McCallum and I am using this blog for education purposes in my Com 481 course. I am currently a senior at Washington State University majoring in Advertising and minoring in Human Resources. I have spent most of my college career also being very involved with leadership positions within the school’s Greek life. 

I am currently interning with Washington State University Student Affairs Marketing. Through my internship I manage social media accounts, client campaigns, have design meetings and many other things. Ideally, I am interested in starting my career in social media management, marketing or advertising in a beauty or fashion related field. I have also been a girly girl and have loved fashion and beauty since a young age, and ideally I would like to work in the industry one day. I think that this is the perfect way to combine business aspects with a more creative side. I have become very interested in the changing and growing advertising tactics it takes to promote a product or run a company. As well as interested in how large of a part mobile media plays in the industry. 

I think that applying skills I have learned in the course to my future career will be very easy, because this is directly the field I would like to go into. The conversion of advertising and marketing to the online world was huge and now it is largely impacting social media, so I think I can gain a lot from this course. 

I have had quite a bit of experience posting on social media for large businesses and the process it takes to do so. I have also had the experience of creating a large-scale yearlong social media plan for my internship that I think has been very helpful and applicable. I think being able to have this experience has given me broader knowledge of the industry as well as hands on experience. 

My ideal learning environment includes lots of hands on learning and experience, this is how I learn best. 

I look forward to gaining a lot from this course!