Ethnography

Over the past few days I have been observing what people do and obtaining the information they give out. I observed three different scenarios in which personal information was involved. Furthermore, I was very surprised at the information people seem to give out these days.

The first scenario I observed was a student in one of my computer science classes. After class he never remembers to log off his computer unless he just does not care. Last year he was in the class before mine and I would come in and his computer would still be logged in. If it has not happened yet sooner or later someone is going to go through his personal information on his account and possibly steal or delete important information. In addition I visited the second floor of the library each day at 2:00 pm. I walked around and looked at each computer that no one was using. The only day I found something surprising was Friday. I found that two computers were still logged on with no one sitting at them. I decided to sit in the corner and wait to see if someone showed up but no one ever did. The computers automatically logged the accounts off after about 15 minutes.

The second scenario I observed was when I went to the mall. I witnessed two incidents that surprised me. The first was when I was looking at cell phone covers for my phone. There was a woman there next to me at the counter that was purchasing a phone with a two-year contract. What was surprising was that she had her credit card out on the counter just sitting there while she was talking to the sales person. It was a good two minutes before the sales person finally took the card and swiped it. Anyone in my position could have seen her credit card number along with her name and punched it into their cell phone. The other incident I witnessed at the mall was when I was in line at the Fye music store for check out. I was second in line. There was a man in front of me buying a DVD. The store had a special going on that gave you 20% off every time you bought something if you became a store member. The sales person asked the man if he wanted to join and he agreed. The sales person then began asking him questions and entering the answers into the computer to create his account. To me the questions were pretty personal. He was asked his first and last name, his phone number, his address, and his zip code. I could hear every answer, as I am sure the people behind me in line could as well. It is scary to think what someone could do with the information the man had given out.

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