Cell Phones and Privacy

The use of prepaid cell phones can protect privacy. They can be used without record of incoming and outgoing calls, avoid billing records, and a quick and easy way to have a mobile phone. I do not believe prepaid cell phones should be banned or otherwise controlled by law. Although criminals can use these factors of prepaid cell phones to their advantage, they also benefit everyday people. When traveling out of the country, it is hard to find a phone company that allows unlimited use without a huge per minute up-charge. Prepaid phones avoid this dilemma, considering the fact that they are prepaid. Also, cell phone plans can be expensive. Some individuals and even families simply can't afford to pay a monthly bill to keep a cell phone. They are worry free- no going over minutes and no exceeding data. They are also easy to get because they don't require credit history to buy them.

Location Tracking

Ideally, a child's safety is the number one concern of a parent or guardian. Most parents would go to great lengths to assure 100% safety of their children. However, I believe that implanting a computer chip into a human child is a length too great. When a child is too young to know the difference between wrong or right, a stranger and a friend, and good and bad, a parent's natural instinct should keep them attentive to that child at most to all times. Although I do believe parents have the right to have the chips implanted in their young children, I don't necessarily believe it is a good idea. My concern is that by implanting computer chips into children parents will lose that natural instinct to tend to their children. They will leave the responsibility up to this artificial product and though the product has the ability to track, I predict that it will lead to a rise in kidnappings, runaways, etc.If there was a bill in Congress to require ID chips in children under the age of 5 I would not support it for these reasons.

Teenage children create a different situation all together. I believe that implanting in a computer chip is even more of a terrible idea than in a young child, but for a different plethora of reasons. By the time a person reaches their teenage years, they know the difference between right and wrong and good and bad. In order to mature into an adult, teenagers need freedom to explore their surroundings and learn by experience. By implanting a chip that gives parents the capability to know where their child at all times I believe the parents would be overstepping their boundaries.

I understand the motive behind tracking seniors who are forgetful or who have Alzheimer's, but still, like tracking children or teenagers, do not agree with it. The idea of implanting a chip in a human being freaks me out in general. It really takes away from the idea of natural solutions to these problems, like a search party or what not, and puts the power into an artificial system. I think this takes away from living in the real world. Although GPS shoes is still a way of artificially tracking humans, I would be more likely to agree with it because it gives you more freedom and option to when and where you want to be tracked.

Assignment 3

In this fall 2012 semester at University of New Hampshire, I am taking CS 408 Section 01: Living in a Networked World. This class focuses on the internet and the practices and technologies involved with it. So far, we have learned the background and history of the internet. We have also learned about the topics of internet ethics and privacy. I am most excited to learn about HTML because I think it's fun to create and customize web pages and whatnot... as you can probably tell from my blog!