Facebook vs. Mass Surveillance

Last night, my son Dalton was tasked with writing a speech on mass surveillance.  He asked me to look it over and give some pointers.  I think he wrote a pretty good speech, but it got me thinking about what is going on in the way of mass surveillance and things that are happening in the social media platforms. 

 

Companies like Facebook have been taken to task about selling data and information that the public has been okay sharing with the masses.  I mean, think about it, I post something on Facebook for people to see then I am supposed to be mad when people get that information?  Who is to blame?  The entity where I shared the information.  Let me repeat, where I shared the information.  I am not the smartest kid in the class, but I know that if I wanted to keep anything from people, I would certainly NOT take to Facebook to “keep it from them!” 

 

Edward Snowden is still in Russia trying to get a fair trial for exposing the NSA and their monitoring tactics, yet the government doesn’t need to answer to any of the questions around that topic?  They were monitoring cell records, emails and texts that people thought were private exchanges? 

 

Sometime I wonder if I am only one who sees the irony in these things.  Okay, moving on….

The Talk

A few weekends back, we took a family road trip to “The Cities” (aka Minneapolis/St. Paul.)  In the car, I thought it was the perfect time to have “the talk” with our 17, 16 and 13 year old.  Now, before you stop reading and think “This just got weird!”, know that I am talking about the ALICE training they have been receiving in schools.  ALICE stands for Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter and Evacuate. 

 

In schools today, they are talking about how to act, react and defend in the wake of an active shooter or threat in the area.  We talked about best practices they have learned and heard about.  I talked about some of the things I have been watching and exploring in my job and we talked about our family plan if something like this ever came up. 

 

While I hate the thought of anyone I love having to deal with these scenarios, I think it’s important to arm people we love with the tools to make the right decisions when needed.  I encourage travelers, security managers, employees, employers, parents and friends to have those “what if” conversations.  I know I learned from my kids and I think they learned something from me.  I also hope, that in my quest to keep going, I, nor anyone I know, has to use the skills we discussed.