+ WEEK SIX REFLECTION POST

For our prep work this week, we were asked to listen to "If You Think You're Anonymous Online, Think Again." I thought that this NPR piece was fascinating. I really loved this assignment and I think it is a good one for us to listen to for this class.

And a little scary.

It is easy to feel complacent and safe on the Internet, but in all actuality there are a lot of things that we should be more careful about. One thing I thought was interesting was the public wifi portion of the interview. When I am on the mainland I hardly ever use wifi, or even here for that matter. But when I was in Australia, I relied on public wifi if I wasn't at home or at work. I hated connecting to public wifi's especially when you have to sign on with an email and agree to a terms of use. What Angwin said is true, "he truth is, what we're learning in today's world is that nothing is free. If something is supposed to be free, then it really means they're taking your data." 
I think it is a safe rule of thumb to avoid connecting to public wifi's.

Something that I have been thinking about recently is shopping online. I recently read this blog post and thought it was pretty interesting. I hadn't really thought of buying those $100 visa cards from a store instead of using my credit or debt cards. (I also like the rules this blogger uses when posting on Instagram that you can read here)

Earlier this week I started noticing changes to Chrome and my Google account. When I sign on to a school computer new notifications about privacy have been coming up. Of course it makes sense and is pretty obvious...but I had never really realized how much Google knows about me. I use Google as a search engine, I use Google maps, I use Gmail, Google Docs, Google Calendar and Blogger. It is disturbing to know that Google could pretty much put together my life through everything I use it for. I don't plan on not using Google, but I do want to be smarter in how many eggs I put into one tool, it could be good to branch out a little.

Just while I was typing this I got a call from a toll free number and I am streaming Elder Perry's funeral. It is rather amazing how I can use technology in this day in age. I am so grateful that technology allows me to stay connected with the world and especially with our living prophet and apostles.