Is privacy an illusion?

            In today’s digital society, I believe that nothing is truly private anymore. I believe that the thought of privacy is an illusion, but it is not a very good one because many Americans see and know about how little privacy they have. With the Internet and other technologies constantly growing, privacy is shrinking. Over the years, the Internet has grown, and with that growth, the amount of information transferred through it has grown too. With the amount of social networking sites that there are on the web today, anyone in the world can see what you are doing or saying and when you are saying or doing it. Also, these sites show all of the pictures you post there, and many people post pictures of themselves and others doing things that are not legal; when people do things like this they are often caught by their parents or even the police. Also, when someone looks for a new job or applies to a college, that school or employer can look at their social networking profile and see what kind of person they are and what they post. The lack of privacy of today is not only the Internet’s fault, but also increasing technology of the government. For the past couple of years, since 9/11 the U.S. government has put more restrictions on our freedoms with things like the Patriot act. The Patriot act increased the government’s power of surveillance and generally made things stricter. Also, over the past couple of years, more and more traffic lights have had cameras put on them; now, you cannot even find a traffic light on any major road without a camera. These cameras can help us drive safely, but also you can be tracked by them if needed. Overall, our privacy is decreasing as technology and the Internet exponentially grows.