How Good or Bad is Our Security and Privacy?

With all the privacy and security that we have in the world, is it all so secure like we want to believe? From the new iPhone’s facial recognition to Amazon items (key system and Alexa) to Macs being able to be hacked easily, everything has the possibility to be hacked.

The iPhone has gone through so many changes. The first iPhone was invented back in the year of 2007 with the iPhone 2G. Now that it’s been 10 years, there is the new phone that is coming out and that is the iPhone X. With that, they have also made it to where it’s a face ID to get into the phone. However, there are many concerns as to using this as a password. The first is that many people have complained that the face reader doesn’t always work. One person complained that when he was in the bright sunlight in New York, he was having issues with getting into his phone. The face recognition scanner is supposed to read 30,000 different areas on the user’s face. This I believe is a problem because we may not get the exact eye contact that it is looking for and it won’t recognize us. I have an iPhone 7 and I’m glad that I don’t have the face recognition on it. I have the Touch ID set up on it and this reads my fingerprints then it’s registered to my own unique fingerprints and no one else could get into my phone. With the face recognizer, some people have been having problems with it. Rather than having a trustworthy Touch ID sensor on the home button, like mine does, Apple has gotten rid of that to have a full screen that requires the facial recognition. Some people have given their reviews on the new phone and it’s basically mixed reviews. Some love it and some do not, and I believe that this is just personal opinion if you have one but I won’t be getting one any time soon.

The next topic I’m talking about is the idea that the Amazon Echo, or Alexa, may be listening on you when you least expect it. My family owns an Echo and I will admit that it is a great thing to have. We have used it to play music or find out when a certain team plays. But, is it actually listening to everything that we are saying? There was a story about a man that was murdered in a home that had an Echo. Police were going to use that t0 see if they could crack the case. They believed that Amazon was keeping everything and will not give out anything. People are concerned that they could be listened to and they could use it against them. There is a solution and just mute the microphone when you aren’t using it. The other item of Amazon that I will talk about is the Amazon Key System. This is something that Amazon.com sells and it allows the delivery person to drop the package inside of your front door. You can set up the camera gear yourself or as a Prime member, you can get it installed for free. Some people may be a little hesitant about it but let me explain how it works. When the camera is installed, then you can see them in and dropping off the package when you are not home. You can also grant access to people that you trust temporary, recurring, or permanent access to coming in your home. This is a great security system and then you have full control as to who can enter your home.

The last thing is a little newer news and that’s Macs getting hacked. Now for me, I don’t personally own a Mac computer at all and I have been told many times that I should get one. I have a Dell computer and I love using it. Before I came to GU, I never used a Mac. I can’t say I have this problems but here are some ways that you can help your Mac not get hacked.

Overall I do believe that privacy and security can be a real issue. There are bad things like the iPhone X, Alexa, and Macs. However, there are others that like the Amazon Key System that can be a good thing where you are in control. We just need to learn how to up the security and privacy, we can make sure that we don’t get hacked.