Privacy, Online & Off

     My online information is something I have always felt I could keep conceited. I keep my accounts private, browse incognito, and am very careful where I put my public information. However, after searching for my full name, first, middle, and last, I learned I wasn't as safe as I initially thought. In fact, no one in my family was safe, even remote family I had never met before. Our information, names, phone numbers, and addresses were public on a simple website. After watching the first TED talk presented by Professor Smith, I was reminded that all information we put on the internet is set in stone. Even if we delete it, it can still be tracked down and traced someway or somehow. In short, as he put it, “Your online life is as permanent as a tattoo.” 

    Another thing that shocked me was how unaware we are of how easily the government can track us outside of the internet. There are surveillance cameras almost everywhere, yet they are so hidden and difficult to track. Everywhere you drive in a car and any building you enter can be tracked by security cameras and license plate readers, meaning anyone with access to these cameras has access to your personal life without the need to dig into your social media online. Local police departments can determine the type of person you are based on this information alone, and that is unfathomable. I was blown away when a man simply asked the police department of records they had on his license plate to find out that they had multiple dates and times with pictures of his vehicle. It tracked where he was going, who he was with; they even had a picture of him and his two daughters exiting the car in their own driveway. 

    After reviewing the information presented, I am not entirely sure how to feel safer. Everything is public whether you like it or not. The government can’t exactly do anything to stop this because they’re the ones making everything public to begin with. We can still take steps do protect yourself from an invasion of privacy. These things can include staying safe online: avoid dropping public and personal information about yourself or your peers. When in public, continue to be a good citizen. 

EOTO1 Com Tech Timeline - The Telephone / Cell Phone

  The Telephone

    The telephone has been one of the greatest and most important inventions in communication. Throughout history, it has evolved and modernized and has become a daily item. Before diving deep into its history, it is essential to note the significant difference between a smartphone and a telephone. A smartphone is what we use today. iPhones and Androids are basically little computers we keep in our pockets. We can directly message, call, search the internet, take pictures, play games, and so on one device. The telephone, however, has one purpose: to make a phone call. This post will discuss the invention of the telephone and its evolution throughout history, leading up to the smartphones we use today. 

    Starting from the beginning, the invention of the telephone wouldn’t have been possible without the thought of one. For centuries, people communicated long distances using hand-written letters that took weeks to deliver through the post office. But this eventually led to inventions like the fax machine. People could only dream of talking verbally to someone miles away. That was until Alexander Graham Bell decided to actually do something about it. 1874 inventor Alexander Graham Bell developed the first working telephone and received a patent on March 7th, 1876.

The first words spoken through it were to his associate, Thomas Watson, who heard Bell say, “Mr. Watson, come here. I want to see you,” from another room. In 1877, the first telephone wire was strung. This connected the phone of Charles William Jr, a man in Boston, Massachusetts, to another telephone. Within a few months, Alexander Graham Bell demonstrated conversations between Boston and Somerville, a suburb of Boston. This marked commercial telephone use in the United States. 

    As time passed, it became known in the community that phones weren’t the most efficient. Absurd examples like The Stockholm Telephone Tower demonstrate how absurd phones were precisely getting. Technical advancements were somewhat getting better. The invention of the payphone by William Gray brought the telephone outside of the house for more remote use. Consumers would have to pay a small fee to use these outdoor phones. If the person on the other end didn’t pick up, it was a waste of money. 

    On December 21, 1891, Almon Strowger invented the rotary phone. This was huge because people could now have phone numbers, allowing people to call others independently rather than having a human operator connect their lines. However, it could still be better. Oliver Lodge developed a form of wireless communication in 1894. Lodge demonstrated this wireless communication method that stretched over 150 yards, marking the beginning of cell phone technology as we know it. Not only did this signal the start of wireless phones, but it was also a significant step in the development of the radio, primarily with his invention of “syntonic tuning.” With the new editions of wireless communication, the Bell Telephone Company became the first telephone service in 1946. 

The Cell Phone

    In 1972, Motorola demonstrated a new version of telephones where people could call each other without wires, birthing cell phones. In 1989, the same company invented the first “pocket” cell phone, the MicroTAC. These were big, bulky, rectangular machines with an antenna on top and an assortment of buttons on the front. They were supposed to fit in your pocket; however, it seemed quite the opposite. The phone had one singular purpose; to make phone calls. This started the uprising of portable mobile cell phones. It had companies scrambling to design the smallest and most portable phone throughout the 1990s. What arose on top was the infamous Blackberry phone. In 1999, Motion introduced the Blackberry 850, which introduced texting, marking the beginning of the Blackberry craze. It wouldn't take long for a competitor to completely overthrow them.

Apple developed the first cell phone with a touchscreen rather than a keyboard. The idea seemed absurd, but it worked perfectly. This overthrew Blackberry and marked the reign of Apple iPhones as we know it today.