My husband and I argue, a lot about privacy and the internet. I have a devil may care attitude. He on the other hand, has made a career of cyber security and policy. So when I proclaim that I love Google and Facebook’s targeted ads and content, it drives him crazy thereby making it more appealing to praise their policies.

But wait.

After looking over the course materials this week for censorship I began to wonder, what am I not seeing? Could my husband be right? This is a question that I had never really considered.  This article with link to a TED talk from Eli Parsier was very enlightening. My filter bubble is likely keeping out quite a bit of important, even necessary information. So perhaps those targeted ads for unicorn wine glasses aren’t as good as I thought.

Eli Parsier points out how he may miss conservative content because he is liberal and how this gives him an incomplete picture. I was shaking my head as I listened and wondered how can I fight for a more accurate and balanced view. It is clearly important so that I remain an informed citizen but I can obviously never let my husband know he may be right.

Why it matters to me.

Trump must be defeated. It is hard for me to even listen to anything he does or says without feeling ill. This means that because of my choices, my filter bubble eliminates quite a bit of news about him. This is a dangerous situation for liberals. We may not see key pieces of information and this could lead to an oversight which cannot happen this election.

Trump has long said social media was biased against conservatives and even drafted a policy last year to help combat this according to several articles, including this one from CNN.com.  While i hate to say he’s right about anything it may be the case that tech giants cannot be trusted. Thankfully Elizabeth Warren also champions this cause and has a plan as always for stopping this censorship.

What about all the other issues?

I am still in the air about other privacy issues such as the government being able to unlock the phones of suspected criminals. It is hard to read articles like this and not want law enforcement to have every tool at its disposal. This article is biased towards Apple and its policies because of the impact this would have on privacy.  I am still up in the air because while I agree this is important, I am unsure of there are not situations that are more important. Especially those situations concerning human life and national security.  Thankfully, this is another issue to disagree with my husband on and I do not see my opinion changing anytime soon.