We live in a time when your personal information is perhaps the most valuable commodity in the market. Every small piece of information about your personal or professional life has an exchange value and there is a huge black market for those data. It is no wonder that such a valuable commodity would also be quite vulnerable to theft. Recently massive data breaches at big companies like Facebook, Sacramento Bee, and Panera Bread have put the personal data of tens of millions of users at the hands of crooks.
According to the Oxford Dictionary, privacy is the state of being alone and not being watched. In a time of increased data thefts and hacking attacks, our personal and professional lives are facing higher risks of infiltration than ever before. In trying to make our everyday lives more comfortable, we are making our personal data more vulnerable to scammers, criminals, and other unscrupulous agencies. If you want to keep your personal life really personal, it is high time that you start taking data privacy seriously. Don't worry, we are here to help you. This four-part series “The Undermining of Privacy” will tell you which data are disclosed in what way, the dangers it implicates, and finally the various ways to safeguard your data privacy.
First, you need to understand how we ourselves disclose our personal information, often unknowingly, to various private companies on a daily basis. Let's consider some cases from your own neighborhood. Matthew is a journalist working in a newspaper agency. Now before going to interview a celebrity, Matthew would definitely Google that person to find some background information about that person. For that, he has to use Google Chrome or any other web browser. After finishing the background research, he will probably drive to the interview with Google Maps to guide him with the route. While coming back, he will sit down in front of his computer and draft the story on Google Docs and finally save it on Google Drive.
Or take the case of your friend Erica who is a freelance video editor. She has been freelancing for five years and has an Instagram and Twitter account where she shares samples of her work and her freelancing experiences. She uses her social media accounts to help people who love editing videos and want to escape the prison of corporate business. She is uber active on social media, posting content every day. To ensure that they reach more freelancers and amateur video editors who need help, Erica geotags all her posts and tweets. Also, she would frequently chat with people from all over the world to share experiences and talk about the difficulties via direct messages or in the comment sections on both platforms.
Jonathan works at the public relations department of a multinational retailing company. As part of his job, he has to travel frequently to meet various company representatives. While preparing for the business trip Jonathan visits Amazon and buys a wallet, a key organizer, a pair of wireless headphones with noise cancellation technology, a 15000 mAh power bank, a laptop, a water bottle, a jacket, a pen, and a multitool. He pays the e-commerce site for those products using his credit card. When the products are finally delivered to his doorstep, he thinks he's ready for the business trip.
Think about Lucy who works at the insurance company. She loves reading books but unfortunately never gets the time to sit down and read one. Every day, while driving to her work, she listens to audiobooks with Audible. At home, she likes to spend some quality time with her family watching movies or TV shows on Netflix after dinner. Lucy and her family are quite impressed with Netflix when it automatically recommends the superhero series Luke Cage after they finished watching The Flash, another superhero series. They have finished watching The Flash so Netflix recommends them to watch Luke Cage. Quite amused by Netflix's intelligence, Lucy takes its suggestions and recommendations.
These people’s daily lives and occupations are typical of our times. However, what none of these four people probably realizes is that while they are trying hard to make their lives more comfortable like that, they are also divulging a huge cache of personal data to various private corporations. While we accept services and products from various companies - ranging from e-commerce outlets, email services to social media and messaging apps - they colonize and store volumes of personal information about the users. Let's see how it happens.
In Matthew’s case, while he is fishing for some background information about the interviewee on Google Chrome, the browser is tracking what keywords he types into the search bar, what sites he visits, and the timings of his visits to those sites. While Matthew drives to the interview with the help of Google Maps, the app is tracking the location that he is driving from and to. At home, while he is drafting the story on Google Docs, the word processor is tracking every word he types and every change he makes. Google Docs also tracks the time that each change is made.
In Erica’s situation, even before she posts the first photo on Instagram or composes her first tweet, the two social media apps have already got her name, email address, and location. Each time she posts a photo to Instagram or shares her tweet with geotags, those two platforms know what exactly she is doing, what is her current location, etc. While she is direct messaging other freelancers, Instagram and Twitter are tracking every message they’ve shared and their timings.
As for Jonathan, shopping from Amazon means that the online store is in possession of various personal information about him: what products he has bought, his location, billing address, shipping address, credit card information. When Jonathan travels on his business trips, the airlines and the airport's stores information such as how much luggage he brings, which flight he is boarding, his seat number, the departure time, his destination, gate number, arrival time, passport, and other ID card details, visa information, email address, and phone number.
For Lucy, while she is listening to the audiobooks, Audible knows which book she is listening to, what device she is listening on, her email address, billing address, credit card information, listening history, returned books, and her reading preferences. After work, while she is watching Netflix with her family, Netflix knows which TV show and the movie they are watching, what TV shows and movies they may also like to watch when they watch a TV show or movie, and for how long, their watching history and preferences, her email address, billing address, and credit card details.
You may be surprised to know how much these private corporations and service providers know about you. In order to enjoy their services which are supposed to make your life better and more convenient, you have to disclose a substantial amount of your personal data to them. Can you imagine your life without these services and technologies? Does that mean that we should give up all hope about protecting our data privacy? This is the ultimate paradox we currently live in. Don’t worry, in the last part of this series, we will give you some excellent solutions to protect your private data from unscrupulous people and crooks. In the next part of this series, however, we shift our focus to the interiors of your home and see why smart home devices don’t necessarily make your home safer. So, stay tuned.
