After reading Lessig’s chapters it has become abundantly clear nothing on the internet or cyberspace is private. There is an absolute absence of the promised freedoms that cyberspace was supposed to provide. According to Lessig, “Cyberspace was, by nature, unavoidably free. Governments could threaten, but behavior could not be controlled.” (3 Lessig). I completely disagree with the statement as the government does control our behavior. Jakes’s story from chapter two is a testament to this. The government attempted to regulate his behavior when he was arrested for his posts, while Jake was eventually cleared his story most likely served as a cautionary tale for most others. Jake was able to win his case on the principle of first amendment freedom of speech; however, most people are not willing to go through the expense and stress of dealing with the judicial system which in essence is how the government regulates their cyber behavior/presence.
I immediately cleared my cached and cookies after reading about their true intent. I like most other people (I hope) didn’t really give the acceptance of cookies from websites I visit a second thought. Now that I am keenly aware that they are able to track my browsing patterns it is now a habit of mine to clear my cookies on a regular basis. I have noticed that after visiting the NSU bookstore webpage, ads that are directed to me are from the NSU bookstore.
I was reminded of the new REAL ID that will soon be required to travel foreign and domestically when I read the section on Identity and Authentication. While I think the idea of having an ID that I can control the limits on is a great idea, I am still a little skeptical of who will really have full access to all of my information. I do have a REAL ID, and I applied for it without really questioning it. I simply did not want to be denied travel access. I wonder how many other people did not really question the true intent and who exactly would have access to all of the data stored on the REAL ID and for what purpose would they use this information. I feel as though I made the decision to get one because as Lessig states in Chapter 16, I was disabled from having a choice.
Work Cited
Lessig, Lawrence. Code 2.0. Basic Books, 2010. chapters 1-5, 16 http://www.codev2.cc/