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transcript 3.152

Try not to look at this until you’ve done all the exercises that go with the listening.

Privacy: have we lost it?

Jackie: We live in a world of selfies and self promotion. So for this week’s
podcastsinenglish.com we’re talking about privacy and our right to
it.

Richard: Yes. It’s... it’s ironic in some ways in that there’s a big discussion at
the moment about privacy and the government and organisations
knowing our every move, but then on the other side of the coin
people are putting up all this information on the Internet, on
Facebook, on Instagram all the time as well, so...

Jackie: Yes, it’s interesting because people seem to be obsessed, don’t they,
with taking photos of themselves. We mentioned the... the... the
selfies and letting everyone know where they are, what they’re
doing and who they’re doing it with.

Richard: But they don’t like the Government to know too much about their
activities though, do they?

Jackie: Yes you’re right, Richard, because in our public lives we’re being
watched and recorded wherever we go: in the supermarket, at the
bus station, walking down the road. There are so-called security
cameras catching our every move.

Richard: Yes but... but even those people who are aware of privacy and have
all the privacy settings turned on their social media for instance um…
that goes out the window as soon as they turn their mobile phones
on.

Jackie: Okay, what do you mean by that?

Richard: Well, the phone companies for a start know exactly where you are
and they often give that information to government, corporations
whatever; you cannot be truly private.

Jackie: So, as soon as you turn on your mobile phone, someone can find out
where you are?

Richard: Well, of course. You have to connect to the mobile phone masts,
don’t you? And they know where those... those places are. It’s very
easy to find out where people are.

Jackie: And... and do they know who you’re talking to, as well?

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Richard: Of course, they’ve got records of the numbers, the telephone

numbers you call. Not the content of the call, that’s not important,
but who your contacts are, very important.

Jackie: But it seems to me, Richard, that actually people don’t really care,
they... they um... they put up so much personal information about
themselves on social media and seem to be happy to publicise what
they’re doing. I mean maybe it doesn’t matter that there is… that
there are security cameras everywhere as well. I mean maybe it
would seem hypocritical to complain about, or worry about that kind
of um... privacy invasion if you yourself are being so public about
your private life.

Richard: Well, it depends, Jackie, doesn’t it? On social media, people choose
what to put up on Facebook or whatever but when they’re walking
down the high street they’re being filmed, they don’t know they’re
being filmed, you don’t know you’re being watched. You don’t know
how that information is going to be used.

Jackie: So you’ve kind of lost control then of your... of your privacy.

Richard: Exactly. For instance you could be interested in the environment of

course and go... go to a rally and then perhaps if the police are
observing this rally your photograph could be taken, you could
become part of the police records, they might think you’re an
activist and they might take that further and all you’re doing is just
following a load of people down the street.

Jackie: Because there are cases, Richard, of the police using surveillance,
CCTV, and misidentifying people and um... tragic cases.

Richard: Yes, now I remember a few years ago a Brazilian man was shot by
police in London and he was totally innocent.

Jackie: Yes, misidentification using those cameras. So going back then,

Richard, to what people put on their Instagram or Facebook pages,
the fact that they advertise everything about their lives, maybe
people should think twice about that because you don’t really know
who is looking at the sites, who’s recording it and to what end they
are using that information.

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