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Breanna Failla
Dr. Probst-Martin
English 1101
2 May 2016
Privacy with Precautions
Privacy: the state or condition of being free from being observed or disturbed by other
people; or in a more appropriate definition: no longer relevant. With technology at an all time
high, privacy is something that we no longer have seeing that we are surrounded by cameras, as
well as our cyber-footprint. With the case of Joe Jeffreys and Farmers Unite, Jeffreys is not
innocent and should take full responsibility for his actions. Although the website, Farmers Unite,
sounded like they were a private and trusting website, they proved not to be once sharing
information about Joe Jeffreys to third party websites. Once willingly accepting the terms and
conditions, Jeffreys agreed to sharing his information to third party representatives. In addition,
one must know the outcomes of sharing personal information on the internet and how it can have
an effect on oneself.
When we share personal information, our privacy is gone. An article titled, The End of
Privacy determines that privacy is existent, but not in a way that we think is private. It is still
possible to protect privacy, but doing so requires that we rethink outdated understandings of the
concept. One such view holds that privacy requires total secrecy: once information is revealed to
others, it is no longer private (Solove Paragraph 18). If one wanted to maintain the privacy that
they once had, they would have to live off the grid, cutting themselves off of all technology. With
the ever-growing field of technology, we are left with no choice but to hand off all of our
personal information, which isnt necessarily a bad thing, as long as where we are feeding this
information, isn't trying to take advantage of us.

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As mentioned earlier, with our reliance on technology, it is impossible to reach full
privacy in our lives. At some point we reveal information that everyone will know. Whether it be
that we are using technology for social media, medical records, storage of personal information
of photos or virtually anything else, we must know as individuals where this information is going
in order for it to remain safe. Noticing that Joe Jeffreys put personal information, like his income,
on this website, he willingly gave it to every person that could have potentially wanted it. When
on the internet, we often look beyond the important information that is crucial for protecting our
privacy. A perfect example of this would be the terms and conditions. Terms and conditions
explicitly say what a website is doing with our information when we turn it over to them.
However, in the fast paced society that we are in today, we often overlook this, as well as most
long and dragging amounts of writing. Nicholas Carr expresses his concern for our future when
he says, It is clear that users are not reading online in the traditional sense; indeed there are
signs that new forms of reading are emerging as users power browse horizontally through
titles, contents pages and abstracts (Carr Paragraph 9). Although Carr is mainly talking about
the way that we read articles, this can be translated over to any text that we read on paper or
online. Seeing that Carr has written several books about technology and its affects on us, and
noting that he went to school for writing, it is clear to see that Carr understands that we are
changing as a society. Our minds have been teaching us to overlook this important information,
which is something that we must relearn to do.
To elaborate on Nicholas Carrs point, Gopnik also reminds us of the nostalgia before
technology and Google. Gopnik goes on to explain how Hermione from Harry Potter searched
the periodicals like old times and how we have all changed from that, since the invention of the
search engine (Gopnik Paragraph 1). Even though this source is of a fictional reference, it is ever

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so real when it comes to our transition in technology. With such transition, we have become lazy
and impatient, speeding though important content (like our very disliked terms and conditions) in
order to get to what we want. And yet, we still expect to have the privacy and protection that we
once had.
One may argue that privacy still exists and Joe should have been given his right to
privacy. Everyone knows that the terms and conditions on websites are long and have an
overabundance of text that is not necessary, but they are there to serve an important purpose. The
websites that provide terms and conditions are letting their users know what they will be doing
with your personal information, thus proving that Joe Jeffreys willingly agreed to these terms.
So, in theory, if Joe were to read the terms and conditions, he would have known that Farmers
Unite would have been giving away his information to third parties. To bring up another counter
argument, Farmers Unite also expressed the phrase, We want YOU to feel comfortable finding
someone like you in the privacy of your own home and on YOUR schedule! which may seem a
bit misleading when it comes to interpreting the extent of the privacy. This relates back directly
to the terms and conditions and how one must read and look over everything before revealing
personal information.
What people must realize when they are on the internet is that everything they do is
tracked. In the video How the Government Tracks You, it reveals that the NSA tracts our website
history and even certain words that we type into Google. A way that we, as a society, could better
this concept would be to instill more laws on our privacy. An article from Scientific American
mentions, The broadening might actually embody the original early 20th-century interpretation
of this principle of common law, which conceived of privacy as more than a means to protect

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property: The right to withdraw from the public gaze at such times as a person may seem fit
(Solove Paragraph 28). Now, while it is true that privacy still exists, it does to an extent. In
theory, being able to withdraw oneself from the eye of the public sounds like a solution to
everyones problems, it is a far stretch, and very unlikely to happen. A way that we can come to
some sort of resolution, or sense of closure is to limit what we put on the internet. Make sure that
it is legitimate information (unlike what Joe Jeffreys included about himself) and make sure it is
something that you wouldn't mind other people seeing.
Privacy was something that was once precious to us, and quite frankly many of us still try
to hold onto it. We need to realize that we are living in a world where privacy is very hard to
keep. We are constantly required to input our information on the computer, whether it be for
email, ordering an item, or signing up for a service. As consumers, we need to pay attention to
where we are putting our information. Taking steps to read the terms and conditions and limit the
information that we reveal about ourselves online some of the ways that we will be able to stay
clear of companies trying to manipulate our identities. As for Joe Jeffreys, he would not be
considered innocent noticing that he did not read what he was getting himself into, which would
be due to the fact that to internet is changing the way that we think.

Work Cited:
Carr, Nicholas. "Is Google Making Us Stupid." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, n.d. Web.
05 May 2016.
Gopnik, Adam. "The Information." The New Yorker. N.p., 06 Feb. 2011. Web. 08 May 2016.
Lilly, Evangeline. How the Government Tracks You: NSA Surveillance. The NSA Really Isn't
Going to like This. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 May 2016.

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Solove, Daniel J. "The End of Privacy." Scientific American (2008): n. pag. Scientific American.
Scientific American. Web. 5 May 2016.