J@wstin: blog :

today in my language and power class we started talking about Foucault's critic of the American prison system that began in Philadelphia. He believed that the observation nature of the penitentiary led to information gathering and surveillance of people. While the intent of the observation tower was to better understand the prisoners so they could be re-educated more effectively, this information could also be considered an invasion of privacy. This practice reminds me of the google commercial during the superbowl. While most people applauded its originality and "awhh" factor, it's also kinda frightening to think how much your searches can reveal your life. Google has admitted that it keeps a record of all the searches and their corresponding IP address, but it says that this information is currently used to improve their search result. However, there are rumors that google has granted access to federal government to these search results in convicting terrorists. If you really think about what you type into the little google search bar, the information is probably a lot more revealing and indicative. I dont really know where im going with my theory, but i guess its just scary to think about how much we are willing to reveal about ourselves to the internet unconsciously...