Skimming over the news this morning as always, I briefly check the technology section in case there is something interesting and relatable to weekly content. Finding this article on US woman Sondra Arquiett’s who’s Facebook account was hacked by  the US government’s Drug Enforcement Administration. Using real photos and personal information, this woman’s friends and family were tricked into believing spontaneous posts were actually coming from Arquiett herself. This made me think about the discussion in this week’s symposium about databases. With the extent to which Facebook is now used, currently supporting over 1.28 billion monthly active users Facebook has pretty much become one big online database in itself. Holding the names, date of birth, emails and personal images of almost all your friends and family, Facebook could be just as efficient, if not more so, in finding the details of people you have never met…

With this news article itself states ‘The case shows that legal standards of privacy are struggling to keep pace with technology, which is evolving constantly. And it shows how the same social media platforms that can serve as valuable resources in criminal investigations can also raise sensitive privacy implications, which are difficult for law enforcement and the courts to navigate.’

So how do we now think about a phone? How do we think about a Facebook account? Social networking site, social database, social security hazard or beneficial communication tool?

This issue also worries Nathaniel as he talks about iCloud’s lack of security in recent weeks in his post ‘Hey Ma! The Rains are Coming’. Ashleigh on the other hand expresses her thought that even though many databases are now online, the narrative structure can still exist.