Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

Geneva Tolliferreo's picture

7/8 PM Summary

If you want computer security, you have to sacrifice privacy.  Is this, or not, a contradiction?  Sure it is.  And, is this not very concern that several have expressed this afternoon?  Sure it is.

Dr. Grobstein admits that he can not guarentee TOTAL protection on the web from those who intend to do harm to any of us.  I applaud him for his frankness, because it's true, he (and no one else) can.  However, many may attempt to convince us that they could.  Impossible.

I believe that as 'fail safe' as those who have programed President Obama's Blackberry say it is, it's not 100% fail safe either, from his private calls and messages being accessible.  Allbeit, one may have to go through serious firewalls to get the info., it is possible...with great effort.  This is unfortunate for him, as he deserves his privacy with family and friends.

I have concerns about the full extent of the "The Freedom of Speech" laws.  When these laws were written, people were not as lawless and accessible as they are today.  Unfortunate for us, where I appreciate the advantages of the Internet and would like to believe it's challenges pale in comparison to it's advantages, we just keep learning of how employers are using it to screen potential employees, mortgage lenders are screening potential homeowners...in many cases as the sole and primary point of reference and ultimate deciding factor of approval or not.

Reply

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
4 + 0 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.