Social Engineering Challenge # 1

My social engineering challenge was to get a video of a stranger without them knowing.  I accomplished my task by a spontaneous move (I did not plan ahead) while I was riding the “T”. I have been thinking about how to approach my task for a while and I hadn’t been able to come up with a solid plan yet. While I was using my cellphone in the train I realized there was somebody in front of me and there was nobody sitting/standing next to me so I decided it was the perfect opportunity to record the stranger sitting in front of me. I pretended like I was still reading something on my cellphone and I recorded him for a few seconds since I felt very weird while doing it and I was scared somebody was gonna notice me doing it (including the stranger) which would had led to a very awkward moment.

I have evidence of my task but due to privacy laws I will not be posting it here without making the proper changes in order to avoid seeing the person's face.

I think anybody could use the same technique I used to accomplish the same task in a real-life situation which is very alarming since out of 10 people riding public transportation at least 8 are usually in their mobile devices (tablets, cell-phones or laptops). Anybody that could record a stranger without their knowledge could use that data for many purposes which noone of them are good or legal, you could make a video to bully somebody or even to spy on somebody.

Ethically this analysis leads me to think that we have lost a lot of our privacy on a daily basis in this modern world. Nobody should be collecting or using personal data without the proper authorization because it is an invasion of privacy. Even though there are legal actions you can take in a case in which you have been bullied or spied through personal data that was collected without your authorization, it is still very hard to prevent such incident since it is so easy to snap pictures or record videos in any place in which you are surrounded by people and their mobile devices. The only ethical way of doing what I did would be by asking properly the individual or individuals  before proceeding with the recording and collection of personal data.