Senior Seminar Blog

     Before CitizenFour, I knew that the government had access to a lot of our personal data or had the means to retrieve it. However, I was unprepared for the overwhelming amount of data they had access to. The most interesting portion of the documentary for me was the amount of secrecy the government holds. Throughout the documentary, there was little to no information on how the government was responding to Snowden other than sending lawyers. They did not appear to address anything that Snowden brought up specifically and thus created more anonymity.     From now on, I am going to keep a closer eye on my data and will take steps to privatize it as best as I can. While I do believe the government has a reason for keeping an eye on individuals, keeping mass amounts of data from the general population seems unnecessary and like an invasion of privacy for the American people.

The dicussions brought to my attention many ethical considerations within the realm of beekeeping software. Intellectual Property One of the first eye-openers for me was the complexity of intellectual property in software development. Understanding who holds the ownership of code and what rights they have can impact both the development and distribution of technology.  Data Collection and Privacy Concerns Another area that was talked about was the ehtical handling of data. With beekeeping software like Hive Tracks, collecting extensive data on the bee colony health and activities, questions about data privacy and security are kept in mind. Talking about the implications of data storage, user consent, and company transparency when it comes to handle sensitive information has emphasizes the importance of ethical data practices that respect a users privacy. Outsourcing and Liability The decision to outsource certain software functionalities, such as user account management or payment ...