RIP Privacy: My Own Data Doesn't Belong To Me Anymore, And I Don't Know If It's Going To Change
When you use modern-day technology, there¡¯s a price to pay. Sometimes that¡¯s monetary when you buy subscriptions and hardware. And sometimes, like in the case of free services like Facebook and AI assistants, the price you¡¯re paying is with your data
When you use modern-day technology, there's a price to pay. Sometimes that's monetary when you buy subscriptions and hardware. And sometimes, like in the case of free services like Facebook and AI assistants, the price you're paying is with your data.
It's a quandary that's almost impossible to escape. It's possible to not use some of these services, but you can't forswear all of them, not without it affecting your lifestyle or social life, and sometimes even your career.
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Social media is not the cause, just the fire alarm
Take me for instance. I know just how lax Facebook has been with user data in the past. The Cambridge Analytica scandal was simply the incident that brought it all into stark focus. On that occasion, Facebook let a third-party company have access to more data than it ever should have been given. And that's just their negligence with regards to their business model.
Social networks make their money off your data. You think you're the user, but you're actually the product being sold, to other companies.
Reuters
Aside from that, pretty much every social media platform has had some form of a breach or the other. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and others have all been hacked at some time or another. What that essentially means is that, like it or not, your data is out there in the ether.
And yet, despite knowing all of this, I don't have the freedom of abandoning Facebook. While users (especially in India) stick to the platform, that's where a lot of readers will be, and therefore where I have to remain. So though I may have alternatives in Twitter and Instagram, Facebook will not go away, not to mention the later is still technically their platform.
You've been giving away free data for years
Of course, that's the least of my worries. There's all the other things I have to use on a daily basis. For years, websites have used cookies to track what all of us do online. They use them to track my behaviour to gauge their Internet traffic, to serve me customized ads, and much more.
In fact, it was recently confirmed that porn websites use trackers from tech companies like Facebook and Google, and these can gather data on you even if you're using your browser's privacy mode. Oh yeah, and all these apps then also send that data to third parties.
Thanks Internet guys!
And there's no clarity on how this data is stored or used either. The companies say it's all anonymized, but that's what Facebook said before Cambridge Analytica too. And in Google's case, they insist the data isn't used to inform their ads platform, and never has identifiable information. Of course, you can't know that for sure.
At the very least there are options to block cookies now, between Firefox's Enhanced Tracking Protection update, Apple's Intelligent Tracking Prevention, and even Chrome is working on it. But it feels like simply the direction the tech industry was forced in thanks to public outcry and laws like GDPR, as opposed to an organic movement.
Digital assistant? Try snitch in your pocket
It's not just your online services, your hardware is snitching on you too. Think of your smartphone, and smart speakers in the home. Whether it's Android or iOS, the core of these devices are the AI digital assistants inside them. And the companies that developed these "helpers" have confirmed that they do indeed spy on you.
Reuters
Apple, Google, and Amazon, have all admitted to listening to conversations recorded by Siri, the Google Assistant, and Alexa. They all either have employees or contractors listening to snippets of our conversations, direct our secret. The idea is that these humans can help catalogue the recorded data so the AI can learn more and grow smarter. But of course that should still make you mad, some random person listening to what you're saying in the privacy of your own home.
Honestly, there's no other company that can say it spies on you with the equivalent of wiretapping your house and not immediately be shut down by the authorities. Not to mention have people continue using their stuff.
The problem is that, this sort of practice has been going on so long it's sort of been normalized. Think about CCTV cameras for instance. We wouldn't look twice when we see one in a store or at a police station. But why on Earth are we okay with installing cameras in schools? Heck, why are some of us happy to have IoT cameras in our kids' schools that we can log into to check up on them?
Holy hell, that's balls to the wall crazy when you think about it for a moment.
We're to blame as well
We literally have apps now that let us track where a family member is every moment of the day, how fast they're driving, and more. If that's not a serious violation of privacy, I don't know what is. And yet, somehow this is so normalized to the point where a few of us are even supportive of these totalitarian applications.
It's a delicate dance atop a tightrope that we have to maintain. Privacy gives me a sense of security online, but giving some of that does offer a number of conveniences. So how far is too far depends on each person. Am I fine with saving my passwords to my browser? Does it really matter to me if Facebook ads are tailor-made for me? Is it safe for me to save my transaction details in an app?
All of these are questions I need to answer on a case-by-case basis. And I don't know about you, but I sure as heck would feel a lot more secure making those decisions if I knew the law was on my side. But in India it's not. In fact, it doesn't even exist yet.
All we've got so far is a vague restriction placed on Internet companies mandating that they store user data of Indians locally. And tech companies are still lobbying the government to roll that back, because it's an unnecessary expense for them.
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But the cabinet is yet to clear the final draft of the data protection bill. That's the bill that will supposedly define who owns the data users share, and how it can be used or transferred. And yes, you'd better believe that includes your Aadhaar data currently in the government's possession, not to mention that of any services you linked it with like your bank or phone number.
Honestly, I see people like Facebook and Google as simple scapegoats in this debate. Don't get me wrong, the extortionate practices social media companies employ to gather and abuse our data is definitely a no-no. What's equally bad though is that our Aadhaar details are also currently not our own to give or withhold. Until recently, we had no say in it being collected or shared. It's a hard pill to swallow that, when foreign companies scrape our personal lives for data, the government is doing the same thing instead of being an authority we can turn to.