Sunday, April 28, 2013

The All Seeing Eye (of the Network)



One would think that in the infinite expanse of the internet there would be shadowy corners or trap doors that hid in them people's secrets and desires. In these spaces people would be able to protect the things they want to hide from the all seeing eye that is made up of all users of the network, but there really is no such places. On the internet if there is a way to hide something, there are many different ways to bypass the protection and reveal the secrets that lay hidden. This power of "revealing all" that the internet (along with the people that use the internet) seems to have imbedded in it's fabric can have grave effects on the people that use (and misuse) the internet. In my high school a kid in my grade had a passionate hatred for another student at the school and would write about it on his personal blog. Not long after he had written a couple of posts about this particular kid, school administrators discovered it and disciplinary action was taken (and even a restraining order was made). The point is that one would not expect their personal blog (or online diary, really) to be discovered by people that you know, causing problems in the physical world. The blog was discovered, even though it was a private blog, because nothing stays hidden on the internet where the all seeing eye of collective users finds anything and everything that is posted. This is the power the internet has over its users, the power of sight and knowledge made up collectively of companies, citizens, governments and many more entities. Combined, they create a tower with an all seeing eye that discovers and uncovers anything noteworthy or powerful that is posted to the internet. Those hidden places or clandestine activities that people think they can keep to themselves never stay hidden because the internet, at its foundation, is about the power of seeing and knowledge.