1984 / Web 2.0

Amber and I were discussing online shopping, specifically using Google Checkout. Her mom had stored all of her information in this specific checkout system, only to later find out that if she did not log out, all of her credit card information would be open for anyone who comes on the computer to see. In addition, other online shopping sites like amazon.com have access to this information.

I understand that online shopping is very popular right now, but hearing about stories like this scares me. It's much too easy for someone to get credit card information, but what really makes me nervous is how other websites are able to simply get a hold of all of this. Sure, amazon is a secure site, but I'm sure there are plenty of hackers out there who are smart enough to figure out how to get all of this information onto their websites as well. It makes me nervous to think that once you put something on the internet, there's no taking it back. Because someone, somewhere, will more than likely have it stored.

This idea leads me to think about the section in "Cult of the Amateur" that talks about the woman who's search engine entries were tracked and followed for multiple months. After you close out of Google, you would assume that the information you had entered is gone. After all, with millions of search inquiries being entered in, how could they possibly keep track? Well, they've somehow managed it.

All of this makes me wonder not only who can we trust...but what can we trust?