One of the participants asked us who the biggest threat to our security is. Howard University alumni met to discuss privacy on July 25, 2012 in Maryland. After discussing all of the six possibilities, we concluded that hackers are more of a threat than the government. The government and private entities are both afraid of hackers. But we all agreed that we are the biggest threat to our own privacy because of the personal information that we voluntarily give away without a thought. Facebook and the other social media are loaded with photos, schooling, age, friends, location, opinions, and much more personal information that we voluntarily post for all to see. Therefore, we have no reason to complain about abuse or misuse by government or others. There was a strong sense of “big brother is always watching” whether or not we like it. Traffic cameras, aerial home scanning equipment, security x-rays and other known and unknown techniques are unavoidable invasions of our privacy.

The internet, social media, and anti-terrorist programs have exploded the issue of privacy to such an extent that policies are not keeping up and are largely unenforceable.