Robert Kenneth Jones 6/9/19 Robert Kenneth Jones 6/9/19

Reclaiming Privacy in the Digital Age

In today's interconnected, technology-driven world, many are re-thinking the consequences of "over-sharing." Bob Jones suggests ways to lead a quietly powerful life.

This is the second of four articles in the June series "Mastering our Digital; Recovering the Real World." which explore concerns about our technological age.

The world is getting smaller as technology expands at lightning speed bringing exciting innovation. It is indeed a brave new world. But as we gain access to vast and unfettered information we are becoming more vulnerable than ever before. Privacy and security worries are increasing. We seem to be living in glass houses, naked and vulnerable without our informed consent.

A Matter of Serenity and Safety

Evolving technology has been influencing, challenging, and compromising our ideas of privacy for a long time. I remember an encounter I had in a remote area of the Western North Carolina mountains where a friend of mine's grandfather lived. He worked a small tobacco farm that had been in his family for generations. The cabin where he lived was built in the middle of the nineteenth century and only had electricity and running water for two decades. Charley was a widower and his grown children and grandchildren were worried about him living alone up there without a telephone.

One of the boys arranged for Bell Telephone to come up and install a unit, but Charley ran the worker off the front porch with a warning and a shotgun. Another friend and I were asked to try convincing Charley to let the man install a phone. When we presented how convenient it might be to just call his family to hear how they were doing rather than make the trip to their homes he replied that "It sure would be nice to do that but the other side of the coin is any one of them could pick up the dang phone and call me anytime they felt the hankerin'. It would ruin my serenity." With that. the advance of technology was halted at his doorstep.

We've come a long way since Charley refused to have his serenity interrupted. With cell phones attached to our bodies, the melodious ringing follows us everywhere and interrupts anything. We even have to be reminded to disconnect during religious services. On one hand, we want to be available for conversations all of the time while on the other we cry out for privacy protection. It seems almost counterintuitive. We certainly don't act like it is a priority. But of course, it is.

Our privacy is invaded every day.

Far-reaching surveillance measures and policies are designed to keep us safe from those who would do us harm. But we give up a lot with video cameras everywhere we wander. Drug testing is so commonplace that nobody seems offended when asked to provide a urine sample. DNA we provide to learn more about our health or genealogy are all too available to governmental agencies. Body imaging devices search us at airports and other public places. Metal detectors are at the entrances of most schools. Our privacy is invaded daily by external forces in the name of security.

Short of "going dark", there are certainly ways to have a desired amount of privacy. And there are some simple ways to maintain the balance necessary for individual inviolability and freedom.

Five Ways to Protect Privacy

Be Smart With Your Smartphone. These wonderful devices are tracking more than you probably know. By using a smartphone you are giving up most elements of the privacy you treasure. They collect information about you even with the pictures you take of family and friends. Stay aware of what your phone is tracking and doing. Check it out at this link: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/phone-privacy/
Protect Your Passwords. It is impossible to remember all of the passwords we set up. But overused ones are more easily accessed by strangers and predators. Get a password vault or manager to save and generate passwords that will save you lots of headaches and trouble. Here is a link to the best ones available in 2019. https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/best-password-managers/
Pay in Cash. It should be obvious by now that folks who issue credit cards are selling your personal information. If you want for your buying patterns to be your own business, slow down the online purchasing. Get your money at the bank and spend it the way we used to...with dollars and cents (sense).
Be Email, Message and Call Savvy. If you don't know the sender of an electronic mail, don't open it. Be especially careful about opening any attachments. This is how phishing works. All of your information is at risk when you aren't careful. The same goes for responding to callers on phones (even landlines). If you don't know who is calling, don't answer. They will leave a message if it is important.
Guard Your Social Security Number. It seems like everyone would like the last four numbers of your SSN. Be very cautious and wary unless it is your bank or the IRS. The fact is that predators of all kinds can figure out the rest of your number with the last four and your birthplace.

Five Ways to Protect Privacy PDF

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There are dozens of other ways to make yourself safer and to protect your privacy. Social media profiles should be very limited in terms of your personal information. Make sure devices have a password or thumbprint requirement for opening. Enable private browsing on your search engine. Set up a Google alert for your name by accessing this site google.com/alerts. Take some time to investigate the different measures you might want to take by checking out trusted sources.

Government and commercial entities are only partly to blame for compromising privacy in the digital age. The bulk of the responsibility rests with each of us. You really have the power to balance your own safety and privacy.

Robert Kenneth Jones 6/2/19 Robert Kenneth Jones 6/2/19

Digital Life; Challenges of A New Frontier

The topic we are investigating in June is "Mastering Our Digital; Recovering the Real World." In a series of four articles and four follow-ups, our hope is to better grasp the nature of this barely charted course before us in order to maintain at least one firmly planted foot in the material dimension where we live and breathe.

We have a dilemma. Portable screens, social media, internet gaming, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and cable television have intruded to a point that we seem beyond the control of them and of ourselves. Even elections are compromised by dark forces bent on influencing who we are and what directions governments should take. It's all pretty overwhelming, especially to skeptical generations which lived most of their lives without these machines. Though the dilemma may appear insoluble, it is not. Or at least it doesn't have to be. After all, these 'things' are designed to make our lives better. The quandary is whether we should fully embrace, begrudgingly accept, or run away screaming as this New Frontier of Digital Life looms before us.

There is a wonderful story about President Eisenhower which circulated among my IBM friends back in the early 1980s. Ike had commissioned an early supercomputer for the Pentagon. When completed, an entire section of one subterranean floor was devoted to the machines. A master control station was set up behind impenetrable glass walls. According to legend, the President came to see his creation and asked to be alone with it for a minute. He typed out this question, "Is there a God?" and the computers all started flashing and whirring. After several minutes, a single card spits out of its' slot toward Eisenhower. It said, "There is now."

Bill Moyers queried renowned author, historian, and professor, Joseph Campbell during a 1988 PBS documentary called "The Power of Myth." concerning computers and the role they might play in the future. Campbell looked over at his computer screen and said: "To me, that machine is almost alive. I could mythologize that damn thing." but went on to say, "The first time anybody made a tool, I mean, taking a stone and chipping it so that you can handle it, that’s the beginning of a machine. It’s turning outer nature into your service. But then there comes a time when it begins to dictate to you." It seems that Joseph Campbell had already foreseen thirty years ago what might happen in a computer age. But there is no reason to rage against the machine. With the Eisenhower story and Campbell's warning in mind, what we must take charge of is the extent to which we allow the digital world to dictate our daily life.

Trying to find a good perspective of the digital era involves looking at some of the negative and positive aspects of its landscape as we experience it today. This is an early stage of technological development really. We have a better chance to guide and adapt now than if we wait very much longer. I am reminded of the popular modern myth "Game of Thrones" which just finished its' final season on HBO. Despite a chorus of voices that warned "Winter is coming" everyone procrastinated. Old ways of dealing with conflicts, security, and enemy threat persisted even when the almost invulnerable White Walkers were in plain sight and civilization seemed doomed. Myths like this one have the power of validating or maintaining a society while providing a path forward (as Campbell tells us). Now is the time for action as we master our digital and recover the real world.

This is the direction we will take over the next four weeks together. Hopefully, our eyes will be opened a bit and we will be able to better navigate the seas ahead without too much upheaval. Follow the content link on each of the 'concerns and celebrations' below as you experience one of the many wonders of the digital age. Instant information.

Four Areas of Concern
There are plenty of areas in which we can focus our concerns about modern digital life. These are four which stand out as ones deserving of our attention:

Digital Addiction/Electronic Screen Syndrome
Personal Privacy and Security/Real Stranger Danger
Global Cyber Crime/Hacking our Future
Physical and Mental Health/Soft Brains and Bodies

Four Areas of Celebration
It's a small world after all. Our digital world has connected us in ways we could have never imagined. People who are not like 'us' become potential friends as we forge into this new frontier. Here are four of many reasons to celebrate our screens.