In “A Guild For Resisting Edtech” by Sean Michael Morris and Jesse Stommel, the authors suggest that “While students who use Turnitin are discouraged from copying other work, the company itself can strip mine and sell student work for profit”(Sean&Jesse). Thus, the authors wishes that students and instructors to stop using plagiarism detection software in order to protect the students work. An example of a data leakage is the Facebook data leakage happened in early 2019. This leakages caused “More than 540 million records about Facebook users were publicly exposed on Amazon’s cloud computing service”(CBC,2019). Data leakage can cause serious problems such as loss in assets are increase the chance in succeed perform a fraud. Especially in this case, the information and data leaked form Facebook contains millions of personal information including the user’s real name, birthdate and the information of relatives. These information can be used to access the use’s bank account and insurance information which are key assets for the user. More over, “A breach at a corporation can put proprietary data in the hands of a competitor. A breach at a school could put students’ PII in the hands of criminals who could commit identity theft. A breach at a hospital or doctor’s office can put PHI in the hands of those who might misuse it”(Symantec,2019). The original purpose for social media companies like Facebook and Google to collect user’s personal data is to analyze each users preference and behavior to provider them with better personal service. These companies are responsible for protecting the data saved on their server. The data these companies collected are used to predict user behavior makes users privacy to be further exposed. Some users do not even know what they are interested in before they are recommanded to see. Higher level firewall only increase the chance of not being hacked, no security system is 100% safe in the world. There is still a chance for hackers to gain unauthorized access to the information they want. For this reason, an anti-internet movement has risen. The movement supporters suggests that the internet is bring everyone naked to the whole world and personal privacy is disappearing with the technology development of the internet. Indeed, the internet is bring a better and comfortable life to everyone in the world, and the economy of the world in benefiting from the use of internet. For this reason, the development of the internet is unstoppable. On the other hand, when people are enjoying the conveniency brought by the internet, they are exposed to potential threats of personal data leakage.

To protect personal data from being hacked and used improperly, it needs the effort from both the government and the public. The largest personal data and information holders in the world are the government officials. They have the information of everyone in the world and the information they have are detailed as some citizens themselves do not even recognize. Governments gather data to better protect their citizens by analyzing the data they collected and prevent crimes. However, if the data they collected is used illegally, countless people’s information would be put in danger. For this reason, government officials have the most secure protection system in the world and it takes large resources to take down the government server which is nearly impossible. For this reason, hacker aim at private companies to steal user data. Compare to the firewall that government uses, the security system that private companies use is much weaker and vulnerable, especially small IT companies. Small internet companies usually hire software developer to help them to build a strong fire wall against hacker. With the help from a third party software provider, the difficulty for hackers to conquer the fire wall increased greatly. However, some companies use the weakness of users who do not read the terms and conditions of using the sites carefully, these companies sell user information to a third party in order to gain profit. To deal with this situation, government put laws against this behavior. In China, a law called consumer protection law was brought out in 2014 to make sure that consumer must know who their personal information are viewed and where they are used before their data are collected. The law further increase the protection for users privacy and information safety. Users are also responsible for protecting their own data. In Unit 3 of this course, the article suggests several ways for students to protect their online privacy. For example, students can use nick names rather than their real name to make it harder to track a specific person. In addition, students can decide whether to make their own work public or be viewed by only the instructor. These methods can help in protecting students privacy and make students to decide to have a more comfortable way when studying the course.

In conclusion, with the increasing use of the internet, more personal information and data including user behavior are being collected. Personal information and data that can critically damage one’s assets and reputation is exposed to potential threats. A data leakage from online server especially severs that hold a huge amount of data can influence millions of people and put their personal information vulnerable to be used improperly. Internet users should be aware of keeping their data safe and secure. In addition, official government laws and supervise from the public can significantly decrease the chance for  data and information to be hacked.

The learning pod in this course created a community for students in the same course to help those who encounter problem when studying the course. When taking an online course, it is hard for students to get an impression of their classmates, the learning pod helps student to get along well with each other. What’s more, students can get more ideas of the articles in the course by reading others blog and paper. In a word, the learning pod is friendly and useful in the course, and it fit the theme creating an online community in a chapter of the course.

Reference list

A GUILD FOR RESISTING EDTECH : THE CASE AGAINST TURNITIN, SEAN MICHAEL MORRIS AND JESSE STOMMEL, Pressbook. https://criticaldigitalpedagogy.pressbooks.com/chapter/a-guide-for-resisting-edtech-the-case-against-turnitin/

Hundreds of millions of Facebook user records were exposed on Amazon cloud server, CBC NEWS, April 4th 2019. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/millions-facebook-user-records-exposed-amazon-cloud-server/

What is data privacy and why is it important, Symantec, 2019. https://www.lifelock.com/learn-identity-theft-resources-what-is-data-privacy-and-why-is-it-important.html

Anti-Internet movement is needed, says expert. DW. https://www.dw.com/en/anti-internet-movement-is-needed-says-expert/a-5738801

One example of a data leakage I found on the internet is the user information breach of Facebook. “In September 2018, facebook announced that an attack on its computer network exposed the personal data of over 50 million users. According to Facebook, hackers were able to gain access to the system by exploiting a vulnerability in the code used for the ‘View as’ feature.”(GERALDINE,2018) Accounts that got attacked involves both normal people and celebrities. The hackers were able to see all the data of the accounts including the information of the account holder’s family and relatives. This kind of personal information leakage can cause public panic which can result in larger consequence such as damage of reputation and loss in assets.

Large social media companies like Facebook and Google has the information of millions of users. Once the company’s system is hacked, these personal information would be open, some important information would even be erased or changed which could result in huge loss. For myself, the best thing to use Google Chrome which is a internet explore is that it can save all your account information of all the websites you logged in. Once you agree to save your account information on Google, you do not have to remember all the passwords which is a convenient design. However, the convenience of this design makes it easier for hackers to steal our account information. Instead of getting the account information they need from each website, now all they need to do is to hack into Google and take all the account information. The security of our data depends solely on the system safety of Google.

Personal information that got leaked on the internet can be treated as a threat in real life. Data that contains birth date and name which are generally required in all accounts is also the information account holds use in real life. The more personal data that leaks out, the higher chance of a typical fraud to succeed. Fraud e-mails and messages fake themselves as they are sent by banks or government officials. Victims are convinced by the personal information contained in the mails and then sending out more personal information that give the fraud access to more assets.

Another danger users face when using the internet is that some website owners sells users information to a third party company without the authorization of the users. For most websites, they require users to agree with their term of use prior to registration. These terms are suppose to protect both the website owners and the users. However, nowadays people agree with the terms without taking a look at any of the terms which gives some website a chance to leak out user data for profit legally. These website providers use the weakness of users who do not have time or not paying attention to the terms and conditions to steal data from users. Even in real life, the situation of personal data being sold to a third party that you do not recognize happens. For example, some cell phone internet providers sell data to real estate agencies for money for every number that the agencies get. In my personal experience, I sometimes receive calls regarding selling used cars, houses and donations.

In general, the internet is full of information, data leakage can result in serious consequences such as loss in assets and damage in public relationship, the users who save their personal information and data on the internet should be aware of protecting their data instead of trusting the server provider solely in order to safely using the internet.

Photo by Sai Kiran Anagani on Unsplash

5 examples of security breaches in 2018, November1 12^th 2018, ·  GERALDINE STRAWBRIDGE

https://www.metacompliance.com/blog/5-examples-of-security-breaches-in-2018/

YouTube as a social media websites has millions of videos includes varies fields. A large number of educational channels you tubers are professional educational workers. For example, when I took economic course last semester, I used to watch a you tuber called “Dr. Cliff” who is a economic instructor in a college. The review sections he posted on you tube are totally free that attracted millions of viewer to watch his videos. The reviews of his video are mostly positive, and for myself, I found his videos helped me a lot in my course. I really appreciate authors like Cliff for providing such useful materials on the internet and making these materials open to everyone. What’s more, I found a link under the comments of his videos that invites volunteers to help those who need help studying economics. The website from the link created a community for people who are studying economics to share their thoughts online. People were originally attracted by the videos, however, the worth of the community they created from the videos is more than the worth of the  videos themselves because ” community enables a group of potential learners to meet common goals(Johns, page 277). Today, the number of members in the community is still growing and the posts in the community is also growing. The best part of the community is that everyone can be a learner and a teacher, and everyone is equal regardless of age and educational background.

On the other hand, social media provides learner a new way of study, the accuracy of the information provided on the social media is not guaranteed. Since everyone can post on social media, the quality of educational posts are not guaranteed by any authorities. The information on the internet can sometimes be misleading and confusing, thus learners have to determine whether they should believe in these materials or not.

Teaching Online: A Guild to Theory, Research, and Practice. Johns Hopkins University Press. 2015

One example of a data leakage I found on the internet is the user information breach of Facebook. “In September 2018, facebook announced that an attack on its computer network exposed the personal data of over 50 million users. According to Facebook, hackers were able to gain access to the system by exploiting a vulnerability in the code used for the ‘View as’ feature.”(GERALDINE,2018)

Large social media companies like Facebook and Google has the information of millions of users. Once the company’s system is hacked, these personal information would be open, some important information would even be erased or changed which could result in huge loss. For myself, the best thing to use Google Chrome which is a internet explore is that it can save all your account information of all the websites you logged in. Once you agree to save your account information on Google, you do not have to remember all the passwords which is a convenient design. However, the convenience of this design makes it easier for hackers to steal our account information. Instead of getting the account information they need from each website, now all they need to do is to hack into Google and take all the account information. The security of our data depends solely on the system safety of Google.

Another danger users face when using the internet is that some website owners sells users information to a third party company without the authorization of the users. For most websites, they require users to agree with their term of use prior to registration. These terms are suppose to protect both the website owners and the users. However, nowadays people agree with the terms without taking a look at any of the terms which gives some website a chance to leak out user data for profit legally.

In general, data leakage can result in serious consequences, the users should be aware of protecting their data instead of trusting the server provider solely.

Photo by Sai Kiran Anagani on Unsplash

5 examples of security breaches in 2018, November1 12^th 2018, ·  GERALDINE STRAWBRIDGE

https://www.metacompliance.com/blog/5-examples-of-security-breaches-in-2018/

Another tool suggested in the book is “Online discussion forum”(Major,2015,page 103). Instructor David Evans in University of Virginia, US used online discussion forum in his online open course of computer science. Because of the nature of the course is totally free and open to everyone on the internet, the number of participants is huge so that it is hard for the instructor to help everyone with their problems. As a result, the online discussion forum is developed for people who have understood the materials to help those in need. According to David, “they provided a very active environment, with over 88,000 discussion questions posted”（Major,2015,page 103). The online discussion forum helped getting people learning the course better and faster. A similar system I have used is the forum post section in this course’s course space. Taking an online course makes it hard to see who my classmates are, but the forum post section provides a platform for students to know and communicate with each other.

Reference

Major, C. H. (2015). Teaching online: A guide to theory, research, and practice. Baltimore, Maryland: Johns Hopkins University Press.