Do we actually know where our information goes? – The Daily Eastern News

Over the summer, and even into last semester, people would go to Snapchat or TikTok and see these really aesthetically pleasing videos.

The videos were of things being painted after someone entered a date, name or object on the screen. Although I never did it myself, I thought these pictures were lovely. There is no other way to describe them.

I’ve always wondered what apps people used to make these videos, but I knew I didn’t want to download any of them for myself. I wasn’t sure what information they would ask for before they let me use their product.

Honestly, part of me was glad I didn’t download any of these apps. I wouldn’t be surprised if some of this AI stole our information that we have to put into the apps to get the desired result.

I thought of these AI videos after scrolling through TikTok and found one made by an influencer I follow that she made months ago.

I hope nothing bad happened to her private information, but I know there is a strong possibility that it could have been breached somehow.

It is scary to think that the whole life of our generation is like this. I feel that technology has taken over our lives. If you can’t tell, I’m starting to hate the fact that I hate that it does.

We provide our information to Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, BeReal and more. This is so we can connect with our friends, people we met at a frat party once and never saw again, or people we never met in the first place.

We must provide all of our personal information to Eastern in electronic form so that they can store it somewhere. We have to give it to them so that we can be admitted, to register for classes, to get a job on campus and even to graduate.

We give so many people access to our personal and identifiable information without knowing if our information is actually safe in the places we put it.

Although this has never happened to me, I can have money stolen from my bank account, my identity stolen, all my social media accounts hacked, or all my classes dropped just because someone has access to it.

I know there are duo authentication resources available, but I’m not sure how secure they are either because it’s a service to which we have to provide our personal and identifiable information.

At the same time, I know that these resources will help us.

I was just never taught how it was supposed to actually help or what it even does. Like many students, I did the duo authentication because I was asked to.

I just hope that in the future people tell us the goals of what we use another technology is and what it really is and does so that our information is not damaged in the long run.

Katja Benz is a senior English major. She can be reached at [email protected] or 217-581-2812.