Tshimbalanga1

Ketsia Tshimbalanga

Professor McGriff

Composition II

8 August, 2018.

My Smartphone can be an invasion of privacy?

Smartphones and technology play such a big role in our lives today. We use it for literally

everything whether we are checking the news, on social media or even using your personal

banking apps. We see our smartphones as such a convenience but have you ever asked yourself

what happens to all the deleted picture that you erase from your phone or why your phone will

start having glitches. Some of those problems are caused by the government trying to spy on you

for specific a reason whether you are in a court case and they want proof, or hackers trying to get

your personal information to use it for blackmail or their own personal use. You need to be

cautious of what you do on your smartphone for example: Don’t put private information on your

smartphone, informing teenagers of privacy protection personal information, and ways to protect

your secretive information. As a child of the twenty first century, technology is needed. I was

always aware of the privacy risks that come with putting personal information on smartphone,

but I never realized how it has impacted our lives and how it has become a burden and is causing

so many issues for others. “As people pack increasingly sophisticated smartphones in their

personal life, they're clamoring to use those gadgets in the workplace as well. And many of their

bosses are loosening up. They're ditching the traditional BlackBerry-or-nothing policy and

allowing a wider range of mobile devices, including tablets such as the iPad. This arrangement

can bring benefits for both sides. Businesses don't have to buy as many phones for employees.

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Employees, meanwhile, don't have to carry two devices around, and people who didn't get a

company phone before can have one now. But there are a lot of potential pitfalls, too. Few

smartphones offer the security features that the BlackBerry is known for. IT departments also

struggle with supporting business programs on newer mobile operating systems such as Google

Inc.'s Android. What's more, allowing personal phones raises a tough question: How much

control does a company have over the device” (Cheng 2011)? When you think of using you’re

smartphone at work your so focused on the positive like the fact that you do not have to go back

and forth from one device to another, and you can access the information that you need any time

for example, you did not finish all you work at the office and you tell yourself that you will

continue tonight when you get home. It sounds too good to be true and that’s because it is as

great as it is to use your personal phone at work it comes with consequences as well like there is

not that much security on your smartphone and can easily get hacked.

“Most companies start with a very basic line of defense: insisting that workers use the password

feature found in every smartphone. The password prevents other users from accessing any of the

phone's basic functions, forcing most run-of-the-mill thieves to erase the device to make it

usable. That's critical, because employees will often store emails and attachments with corporate

data or information about future projects on their phones. Sometimes it's not enough to erase data

after a phone is out of a worker's hands. Companies in a range of industries—such as medicine

or finance—have to do a lot more to protect sensitive data while employees are still using the

devices. Medical companies, for instance, have to follow rules under the Health Insurance

Portability and Accountability Act that protect customer data. In some cases, that means having

patients' information on a regular personal cellphone isn't permitted “(Cheng). Companies go

through a lot to protect their businesses when it comes to login in into your work website there is

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usually a specific username and password for different user some businesses are consistently

change the passcodes to make sure they are protected. But that is not always the case with some

companies they prohibit smartphone use in the work environment like hospitals having

someone’s personal information is a big deal and if it ends up in the wrong hands business can

get sued or even get closed down. Shredding paper is not enough some destroy the devices they

use after a while to make sure no one’s private information is being seen. Cell phones can be

used for educational purposes, allowing students to research information on the Internet as well

as organize their notes and assignments. Educators and students can use applications to interact

with schoolwork in innovative ways.

Students who have access to cell phones at school can stay in communication with their families,

employers, and classmates. Maintaining this level of communication can improve relationships,

help students manage their schedules, and enable students to contact help in the event of a crisis.

Allowing students to bring their own cell phones and other electronic devices to school enables

teachers to integrate these technologies into their lessons without requiring the school to

purchase a device for every person in class. The resources that would have gone toward

technology purchases can then be used for other purposes such as expanding extracurricular

programs or improving school facilities. The cons are “Students come to school to learn and do

not need additional distractions in the classroom. Despite a person’s best intentions, the

temptation to check text messages, emails, and social media can be difficult to resist. If students

are unable to endure an entire school day or class period without checking their phones, they

may be dealing with a level of dependency that would not be improved by increasing their access

at school. Cell phones create additional opportunities for students to engage in bullying,

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harassment, and gossip. The rapid sharing of information and photographs can heighten social

pressures and feelings of isolation in and outside of school (Cell Phones In Schools 2018).

The younger generation is the future and when it comes to being younger, I think we should try

to influence and inform them of what they are dealing with especially when it comes to

smartphones. Putting personal information on your phone may seem convenient but can also be a

big mistake in case you lose the phone or get hacked. It has become a major problem in the

school system with technology it is great to use it to help benefit yourselves in the long haul, but

some educators believe that students are becoming too dependent on their smartphones and it is

also easily hacked and how other’s use it for bulling purposes.

Law enforcement: The department of people who enforce laws, investigate crimes, and make

arrests (Merriam-Webster). Law enforcement is one of the main “hackers” that go through a

citizen’s personal information through smartphone or any kind of technology to basically keep

their eyes on you. “Google alone fields thousands of requests from the United States government

each year for private customer data” (Lee 2012). That is so insane to me that a big company

like Google gets asked by people from the government for personal information of another

person to be given to law enforcement and the people at Google do not even know the motives

for information being asked. “Law enforcement tracking of cellphones, once the province mainly

of federal agents, has become a powerful and widely used surveillance tool for local police

officials, with hundreds of departments, large and small, often using it aggressively with little or

no court oversight, documents show. The practice has become big business for cellphone

companies, too, with a handful of carriers marketing a catalog of “surveillance fees” to police

departments to determine a suspect’s location, trace phone calls and texts or provide other

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services” (Lichtblau 2012). The fact that local police officers have personal knowledge of the

data that you have in your smartphone blows my mind and the fact that it is not even for a

specific reason. It is wrong in the first place to have private information that does not belong to

you without permission but the fact that some of the officers are doing it just because it sparks

their interest or brings them some sort of joy is an invasion of privacy, I am truly flabbergasted

that cell phone companies are making a profit off of giving away cellphone users, intimate

information without that person’s acknowledgement. “Over the past several years, there have

been signs that federal courts at all levels--from magistrates to the Supreme Court--are

increasingly struggling with the privacy implications of evidence-gathering in the digital age.

Judicial discomfort with certain law enforcement techniques was already simmering well before

anyone ever heard of Edward Snowden, but it only intensified after the former NSA contractor

leaked classified documents in June 2013 that revealed that the NSA was collecting bulk records

regarding Americans' telephone calls from U.S. telecommunications providers pursuant to

Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act as well as the content of and other data regarding Internet

communications” (Weinstein 2015).

Judicial court system is having trouble with trying to prove that some of the ways that law

enforcement is getting personal information of other’s without consent and by giving an example

of the man Edward Snowden and how his personal information was taken and used without his

permission it states that this issue has been going on for a long time, but is becoming more of a

bigger issue due to the fact that law enforcement is exaggerating when it comes to citizens

personal information. “There have been some moves toward extending full fourth amendment

protections to online services. The United States court of appeals for this sixth circuit held that

randomly stored e-mails is protected by fourth amendment. Supreme Court justice Sonia

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Sotomayor called third party doctrine “ill- suited to the digital age.” In the future she may

convince a majority of her colleagues to embrace the sixth circuit’s age” (Lee). The fourth

Amendment: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects,

against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue,

but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place

to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. (The constitution find law)

People are taking this situation seriously stating it is an invasion of their privacy and breaking the

fourth amendment others are stating that it should be part of the fourth amendment you have

people on the supreme court like Sonia Sotomayor pushing forward to make sure that citizen feel

more comfortable knowing that this issue is getting handled.

Scenario 1 (Deloitte): in the case of stolen phones (50% encrypted, 90% passcode locked):

 In 90% of cases it was possible to identify the owners’ email addresses

 In 75% of cases it was possible to identify the owner

 In 75% of cases the owners’ contacts were recovered

 In 40% of cases a variety of passwords were recovered

 In 25% of cases PPS numbers could be identified as they were stored in contacts or SMS

messages

Scenario 2 (Deloitte): In the case factory wiped phones (40% encrypted, 0% passcode

locked):

 In 70% of cases the owner was identifiable

 In 85% of cases it was possible to access text and chat logs

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 In 60% of cases it was possible to retrieve contacts

 In 60% of cases it was possible to identify the owners’ email addresses

 In 30% of cases a variety of passwords were recovered

 In 15% of cases PPS numbers were recovered

In this chart it is showing us actual tests that have been run and proven how serious this

issue is and how it is only getting worse if we are not educating ourselves on this topic.

“The best way to avoid privacy problems created by third party storage is not to

relinquish control of personal information in the first place. Deliberately disable

computation on that data on the storage provider. Amazon s3 helps users store their data

in encrypted form” (Lee). The best way to know for a fact that all your personal

information is kept safe is to not store it on your smartphone and using something like the

amazon s3 will be better for you to put personal information on a smart device as it has

different encrypted password which are hard to get into.

Scenario 3 (Deloitte): Top tips for protecting your data and maximizing privacy:

1. Put a passcode on your phone

2. Enable encryption if your phone has that functionality

3. Protect your corporate data by using complex passwords or device encryption

4. Wipe old phones

5. Enable the remote wipe facility if possible

6. Record the IMEI number

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7. Protect your phone back ups

8. Vet your apps

9. Safely dispose of your old phones

When it comes to law enforcement all of them whether it is The Federal Bureau of

Investigation (FBI) or Police they all have a duty to protect and serve that’s what they are

trained to do. It is just like parents when you have a child they become your world you

would do any and everything that you could to keep them happy and also protect them

from anything that is bad for them that is similar in this situation I feel like law

enforcement has good intentions when it comes to looking at citizens private information

even though they do not have permission. They just want to make sure that their people,

families and The country is safe, I just think they have been going about it in the wrong

way with taking people’s personal information without consent.

I hope this was helpful to you and gave you an insight to what really happens behind

closed doors with our smartphones. I wanted to give you more knowledge about this

topic and make you more aware of how dangerous it is to put any kind of personal

information on your smartphone. Lastly, this is not to bash or be hateful toward law

enforcement it is just to show you how far they are willing to go to get information and

for you to keep your eyes opened and just be cautious of what you do. Law enforcement

has good intention, but are abusing it.

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Works Cited

"Cell Phones in Schools." Opposing Viewpoints Online Collection, Gale, 2018. Opposing

ViewpointsInContext, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/YYOJUC287392073/OVIC?u=linccli

n_sjrcc&sid=OVIC&xid=a9a6d2e3. Accessed 24 July 2018.

Cheng Roger. “So You Want to Use Your iPhone for Work? Uh-oh” The Wall Street

Journal.25 April 2011.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704641604576255223445021138

Accessed 21 July 2018.

“Deloitte research highlights the dangers of data theft from mobile devices.” Deloitte,

https://www2.deloitte.com/ie/en/pages/risk/articles/mobile-devices-security.html#. Accessed 24

July 2018.

Lee, Timothy B. “Smartphones Have Privacy Risks” Opposing Views in context.14 March 2012.

http://go.galegroup.com.db23.linccweb.org/ps/retrieve.do?tabID=Viewpoints&resultListType=R

ESULT_LIST&searchResultsType=SingleTab&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition

=1&docId=GALE%7CEJ3010867217&docType=Viewpoint+essay&sort=Relevance&contentSe

gment=&prodId=OVIC&contentSet=GALE%7CEJ3010867217&searchId=R1&userGroupNam

e=lincclin_sjrcc&inPS=true Accessed 10 July 2018.

Lichtblau Eric” Police Are Using Phone Tracking as a Routine Tool.” New York Times. 31

March,2012. https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/us/police-tracking-of-cellphones-raises-

privacy-fears.html. Accessed 21. July 2018.

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Weinstein, Jason M., et al. "Privacy vs. public safety: prosecuting and defending criminal cases

in the post-Snowden era." American Criminal Law Review, Fall 2015, p. 729+. Opposing

Viewpoints In Context,

http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A434223297/OVIC?u=lincclin_sjrcc&sid=OVIC&xid=d008

60d8. Accessed 21 July 2018.

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