In 2004, Mark Zuckerberg changed the world, for better or worse, with the launch of Facebook. Originally exclusive to Harvard students, the social network quickly surpassed then-dominant MySpace to secure its place in the Internet food-chain. While it may seem like everyone who’s anyone is on Facebook, the website has come under constant scrutiny in recent years over its privacy policies and its implications in the Snowden leaks. Yet, despite the facts, experts still seem unable to agree as to whether or not it is possible to have privacy while using Facebook. Internet Safety 101 Before…

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On July 5, 2016, Pokémon GO was released in the United States for iOS and Android. Since launching, it has quickly become to most successful mobile app on both platforms, beating out the likes of dating app Tinder and social media app Twitter. However, concerns over the technology used in the game as well as early issues with Google account permissions have left many people, like US Senator Al Franken contemplating the privacy and security implications of the game, which I will address in this post. Google Account Access I’ve been a fan of the Pokémon franchise since it hit the market i…

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Three years ago today, whistleblower Edward Snowden proverbially climbed to the mountaintops and bellowed the unconstitutional sins of the National Security Agency to the world. He leaked thousands of classified NSA documents to Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras and Ewen MacAskill. These documents exposed how the NSA daily spies on American citizens and people around the world without bias or due process for gathering their information. The average American tends to consider much of this factual information to be little more than conspiracy theory banter about some dystopian New World Order. The…

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