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Samantha Keil
Professor Melina Probst
English 1101
10 May 2016
Are you being fooled?
The most important part of anyones life is privacy. If you think about it, having a good
amount of privacy keeps you safe. No one wants all their information to be spread out on a table
for examination but that is in fact what happens on the internet. You may think sharing your
information with one site is harmless because only that site will have it, but is that really the
case? Or do they simply lie about sharing your information? In Joe Jeffrey's case, he is at fault
for not reading the terms and use carefully, as it states a third party can issue his information he
provided for the site.
When using a website, especially one requiring personal information, reading the terms
of use is paramount. Joe is also at fault for providing faulty information to the public to help him
find a woman. When he introduces the problem to the CEO of the company, Joaine Fleur, she
sends her apologies for all the trouble Joe has went through but does not take responsibility for
what has happened. I completely agree with how she went about taking care of the issue. It is not
the company's fault that Jeffrey did not take the time to read the fine print and because he lied
about his qualities. He makes the mistake of just assuming Farmers Unite would keep his
information safe.
Privacy is not just a privilege, it is a right. Many people assume that when they enter
information into the internet it is lost in cyberspace, but that is not true. Think about how once
you type your information in on google its automatically saved for the next time you need to

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enter it in somewhere. Daniel J. Solove, a professor at Yale Law school and author of The End of
Privacy? states, companies collect and use our personal information at every turn. ... If you
shop online, merchants keep tabs on every item you have bought (11). Soloves point is that
every little thing you do online is recorded no matter if its a simple search or personal
information.
Another issue with privacy online is that people have the ability to share however much
information they have about others. Sometimes, just by searching someones name, you can learn
a vast amount about them. There have also been apps created for dating sites rating people on
how great of a time they had or how awful their time. Not only are people sharing private
information about others but are also sharing information about themselves on social media sites.
In his article, How Google Dominates Us, James Gleick, a historian of science and American
author points out Users of Facebook chose to reveal- even to flaunt- aspects of their private
lives, to at least some part of the public world (42). In other words, Gleick is saying that
individuals are sharing aspects of their private lives thinking only their friends or followers
can see but in reality everyone on the internet may be able to see.
Some would argue that the internet is not a beneficial tool. In their pieces, Gleick and
Solove are not stating that the internet is necessarily a bad thing; however there are many aspects
of it that are out of their control. An opposing viewpoint is that the internet is a great thing for the
human population. Im not trying to say that Gleick or Solove are saying the internet is the worst
thing to happen to mankind, but the idea is presented in the articles. Adam Gopnik, an American
writer and essayist who has published THE INFORMATION How the Internet gets inside us says
Cognitive entanglement, after all, is the rule of life. My memories and my wifes intermingle
then goes on to state Google is the worlds wife: smiling patiently and smugly as she explains

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the difference between eulogy and elegy (10). Essentially, Gopnik is saying that google is
simply another tool to use when you need to know something. The point is that the internet is not
a nefarious force: it is trying to help us. This doesnt exactly pertain to social media but more so
how we can get information quickly and efficiently. While this is a good thought, there are so
many other people that believe differently. They believe that not only is the internet intruding on
privacy but that it is also limiting the information we should remember offhand.
Overall, there are many different views on the internet. Despite all of its advantages, there
are certainly some drawbacks. Social media, online shopping, apps, and games all use your
information to keep track of your interests and habits. This is easily observable; when a social
media site shows only ads that you may be interested in, it is not coincidental. The ads are
targeted. In Joe Jeffrey's case he has gotten himself into the troubles he has encountered. Internet
scamming and hacking has become prevalent and therefore it is time for people start being a little
more cautious when putting their information online.

Works Cited
Gleick, James. "How Google Dominates Us." The New York Review of Books. N.p., 18 Aug.
2011. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.
Gopnik, Adam. "THE INFORMATION How the Internet Gets inside Us." A CRITIC AT LARGE.
N.p., 14 Feb. 2011. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.

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Solove, Daniel J. "The End of Privacy?" Scientific American. N.p., Sept. 2008. Web. 14 Apr.
2016.