--Originally published at Software engineering

Different subjects related to Smart Citizens were taken throughout the course, from data privacy to create awareness of how we can contribute to have more control of our data.
I learned many things, I liked the class where we saw what it is to live without the big four .It was also good to know about the experiences of other people, like Ana.

What I take from the course is to keep more importance to our data, awareness about  our privacy plays crucial role in developing true smart citizens.

--Originally published at Software engineering

The text is a little scary compared to the previous ones, basically it is “no matter what you do, there will be a way to track you”, you literally need to use NOTHING of technology to not be tracked, And as I said before, maybe you can not avoid it but giving your information as little as possible is the best option at the moment.

Although I have also come to think, it may be inevitable to use technology or anything from which they can extract our data but, What if those data were unusable? I mean, to make our data as trash as possible so that whatever they take out of us, they can not know what is true and what is not, if I like a religion page also like an atheism page, if I  like  vegetarian food also like meat food, with all this contradictory information what they could say about me? Maybe it would be interesting to have something that helps you on what you should do (as the examples before) so that if they are going to get your information, it should be as generic as possible to the point that it has not significant meaning.

Keep your information safe!

--Originally published at Software engineering

Woaaa this post was so interesting! maybe because I like  “conspiracy” things.

To understand why this whole thing is so important I did a little research on how surveilliance affects people behavior.

“The fact that you won’t do things, that you will self-censor, are the worst effects of pervasive surveillance”. The idea is that if you don’t know where the line is, and the penalty for crossing it is severe, you will stay far away from it. Basic human conditioning.” The effectiveness of surveillance at preventing crime or terrorism can be debated, but “if your goal is to control a population, mass surveillance is awesome.” – security expert Bruce Schneier

Rings a bell? These are things that can currently be seen in the governments of China or North Korea and the united states is not far from this reality.

The increased interconnectivity of the world we are living in has led to a level of vulnerability that we don’t truly understand. It’s a challenge to get people to adopt safe habits, but it’s not impossible. We need to change users’ culture, and design secure systems that are under the control of end users, not single companies. Privacy can’t be achieve without security.

What Ms Boundaoui did, exposing these things that the FBI did and will continue to do is what all people should have the courage to do, to want this type of super vigilance to be minimized to the point that there is no more.

Start talking about it is just the beginning, see these things with normality is what people need to see and believe so that more and more people will dare to challenge the “rules” and that if there are unpleasant consequences know that THEY ARE NOT ALONE.

--Originally published at Software engineering

The Internet has revolutionized many areas in a radical way, especially communications to the point of becoming a global channel and part of our daily days. It is sad to think that the Internet can reach a point where it is increasingly controlled by either organizations or government and that this leads to a total censorship where we could no longer decide what to do without being spied by someone. The government wants to sell us the idea that with greater vigilance, we will have greater security. This is controversial for many reasons. To prevent the internet from being “controlled”, we have to understand why it should be free.

So, what is the free, open and neutral Network? It is the right to universal access to the Internet, that all Internet users have access to the same resources and sources of information regardless of where we live. It is the right that we all have to make our voice and our thoughts heard, to share knowledge and resources with the rest of the world,  to safeguard our privacy, to not be spied on, to allow organizations to behave with us transparently, to have access to the entire internet, not only to the part that most interests a certain organization.

And what can be done about it in order to achieve this? For example, Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, has created a campaign called “Contract for the Web”, with the objective of “persuading governments, companies and individuals to sign a set of principles of a designed to defend an Internet free and open “. In this way, he expects the Internet to stop belonging to a very small group of institutions and return it to the democratizing hand of the users.

And, according to Berners-Lee, the great benefits Continue reading "Week 11: internet freedom" →

--Originally published at Software engineering

Edit

--Originally published at Software engineering

i will do it >.<

--Originally published at Software engineering

updating

--Originally published at Software engineering

Update of the project:  I added a zone model and an endpoint. I think we are doing well on the back-end although I feel there are things that are like for bigger projects (performance things) and that maybe our project does not need so much, but its fine.

Issues, implications and mitigations of the surveillance aspects of Smart Cities

Smart technologies aim to improve living conditions in cities. However, they are also capable of compromising our privacy. What is the limit of the smart?

Technologies offer an opportunity for development and it would be wrong at a certain point to oppose. There are areas in which technology is not always a response or, at least, where the inclusion of technology can generate greater risks to its eventual benefits. One aspect where this is especially important is in privacy.

The challenge of a smart city lies in knowing how to take advantage of the information and use it in a good way without trespassing personal limits but ensuring quality and useful information. If we think of these data as the new natural resource that moves the economy and society, the commitment to protect them is the minimum that those who extract value from them must offer.

For a smart city to be sustainable in the long term, it must be based on trust. Beyond the efficiency generated by emerging technologies, trust must be at the center, from its design, to its operation and results.

Given the massive data leaks becoming more frequent, citizens need to be aware of the actions taken to protect our data. Public and private organizations that obtain, store, manage, process or transmit our information need to be transparent about how they operate.

So, what I am saying is: becoming a smart city is imminent, the best thing Continue reading "week 7" →

--Originally published at Software engineering

This post will be more about smart citizens.

The other day I thought about the class where we saw how someone cut out of his life the big fives. Seeing how everything depends on them and that they know everything we do to the point that if they wanted to, they could control us as they wanted (partly they already do, but completely everything is surely what they want to achieve)

So I decided that this week I was going to pay more attention to my data management on the internet. I hadn’t thought about it for different reasons, but I had to create accounts on different pages for example, as to download subtitles for an anime that I’m watching or to enter overleaf and finish my compilers task among others. I always had the option to register with Google, Facebook or Twitter and I realized that I ALWAYS use that option since it is the easiest. But I started not to do it, I think that although it may not be much but from now on I will do my best not to give them every part of my life because who knows in the future such insignificant things become significant.

I realized the amount of information that I give day by day and this was only in a week.It is understandable why all this information is required to provide a better service, however we should all know how and when we give our information. It is incredible to think about the possibilities that these big companies have with all the information and at the same time terrifying. I think the best thing we can do is simply make people aware and get more and more people to care about their data.

So by start I recommend Continue reading "week6" →