The topics of internet surveillance and privacy are dear to my heart. Within the last few
months my parental unit left me an article about internet surveillance and the possible affect it
might have on future employment opportunities. I know not why this article was sitting idly on
the center of my desk, but I read it anyway.
The article, a few pages long, was ripped from a random periodical and left where it could not be avoided, as if to secretly tell me she’s seen pictures of me drinking various alcoholic concoctions in precarious situations on someone’s FaceSpace. More specifically, the article focused on social networking sites such as MySpace.com and Facebook.com. These social networking sites themselves are not the problem. The problem is the content many users choose to upload on their personal page, even then so-called friends can add photos of you on their page without your consent. With this in mind, should it be important to employers what we do in our own free time? Why must we constantly be looking over our shoulder on and off line?
Background checks consisting of criminal records, previous employment and drug screening have become standard for most employers. It seems employers aren’t satisfied to leave it at that. Now many employers are expanding their research on prospective employees by going
to the internet.
I guess it makes some sense that our personal lives are of interest to employers, considering the current state of the economy. Cost effective hiring will be of utmost importance for companies in our failing economy. No money can be spared for those who aren’t prepared to work 24/7. And if becoming straight edge is what is required by employers then call me Minor Threat’s Ian MacKaye.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Keep it Neutral
If you are anything like the majority of Californians today, then you must be a fan of the first
amendment to the constitution: Freedom of Speech. This amendment allows Americans to say
what we want within reason. Net neutrality is very similar to our basic right of Freedom of
Speech. Net neutrality endows internet users the right to use what web sites they prefer when
they deem it necessary and without regulating processing time. Although many avid internet users may not have heard of Net neutrality before, it has been in use equally as long as the World Wide Web itself.
Recently, the issue of net neutrality has come to the attention of Congress and the FCC by lobbyist working for Fund-using-corporate-kings. Since these “f-u-c-k’s” are never satisfied with their bank roll they continue to squeeze every last dollars from our empty pockets.
If “f-u-c-k’s” such as AT&T, Comcast, Verison and Time Warner have their way with the internet we will be paying butt-loads of money in order to access the internet. Internet bills will begin to look more like your cable bills. Instead of paying one flat rate for overall access to the internet, you will have to pay by specific packages. Having access to the entire internet will no longer be a standard it would be the premium package.
When on the web, we will experience: corporate favoritism of their own search engine, automatic redirects and unregulated processing control. The latter of the three is most upsetting. Say you want to access a site you frequent on a regular basis. Upon entering the URL it takes two times as long for the site to open then it usually would. The slowing or blocking of web sites could become a reality if the site you want to access happens to be a competitor of “f-u-c-k’s”.
What does this mean for the job market? For smaller sites, like the companies we (College Students) might find entry level video production gigs could be subject to harsh internet tactics.
amendment to the constitution: Freedom of Speech. This amendment allows Americans to say
what we want within reason. Net neutrality is very similar to our basic right of Freedom of
Speech. Net neutrality endows internet users the right to use what web sites they prefer when
they deem it necessary and without regulating processing time. Although many avid internet users may not have heard of Net neutrality before, it has been in use equally as long as the World Wide Web itself.
Recently, the issue of net neutrality has come to the attention of Congress and the FCC by lobbyist working for Fund-using-corporate-kings. Since these “f-u-c-k’s” are never satisfied with their bank roll they continue to squeeze every last dollars from our empty pockets.
If “f-u-c-k’s” such as AT&T, Comcast, Verison and Time Warner have their way with the internet we will be paying butt-loads of money in order to access the internet. Internet bills will begin to look more like your cable bills. Instead of paying one flat rate for overall access to the internet, you will have to pay by specific packages. Having access to the entire internet will no longer be a standard it would be the premium package.
When on the web, we will experience: corporate favoritism of their own search engine, automatic redirects and unregulated processing control. The latter of the three is most upsetting. Say you want to access a site you frequent on a regular basis. Upon entering the URL it takes two times as long for the site to open then it usually would. The slowing or blocking of web sites could become a reality if the site you want to access happens to be a competitor of “f-u-c-k’s”.
What does this mean for the job market? For smaller sites, like the companies we (College Students) might find entry level video production gigs could be subject to harsh internet tactics.
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