The Danger Of Lost Data Privacy

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Recently I had a conversation with my wife about data, in particular data privacy and that our data is being distributed everywhere now. The topic came up, because I am using multiple security tools to protect myself. In recent history, I added NordVPN service to my security portfolio.

A VPN, or virtual private network, is a useful tool to secure an internet connection. It guarantees that data you are sending and receiving is encrypted, preventing people from snooping on your traffic.

The discussion my wife and I had was the following: While my wife is not afraid that companies collect data about her, simply because they cannot do anything about it, I feel the exact opposite. They might not be able to do anything right now, as they are just collecting. But I am afraid that on the long-run this collection can potentially be turned against us, even if we have done nothing wrong. Once policies are changed which grants any institution not just access, but permission to act upon it, then things will get out of control. Even worse, when AI has become so advanced that they take action without asking for permission.

At first she is right. Chances are nothing will really happen to us. As long as you do not do or say something which makes you look like a freak.

But like some other folks on the internet, I pose the question whether we can really trust service providers public institutions, where our personal sensitive information is being processed. Beyond just simply collecting data, companies also track our behavior. If Amazon is tracking my behavior, at first I won’t mind. Who cares if they learn that I like to buy books on the topic of methodologies to run better workshops, teams, etc. What worries me though is that Amazon could forward this data to the NSA or any type of intelligence agency. Companies in the US are required to handover data to agencies at their will (at least this is my understanding of the following text passage):

Services based in the United States are not recommended because of the country’s surveillance programs, use of National Security Letters (NSLs) and accompanying gag orders, which forbid the recipient from talking about the request. This combination allows the government to secretly force companies to grant complete access to customer data and transform the service into a tool of mass surveillance…An example of this is Lavabit — a discontinued secure email service created by Ladar Levison. The FBI requested Snowden’s records after finding out that he used the service. Since Lavabit did not keep logs and email content was stored encrypted, the FBI served a subpoena (with a gag order) for the service’s SSL keys. Having the SSL keys would allow them to access communications (both metadata and unencrypted content) in real time for all of Lavabit’s customers, not just Snowden’s…Ultimately, Levison turned over the SSL keys and shut down the service at the same time. The US government then threatened Levison with arrest, saying that shutting down the service was a violation of the court order.

Furthermore, there have been multiple data breaches, especially in the past years, where sensitive data has been stolen, due to security holes. (Sony, Walmart, ebay etc.) Imagine somebody gets hold of your credit card info and enjoys purchasing goods and services on your behalf. Sure, you can block the credit card once you find it out, but nontheless, it has created an issue for you with which you have to deal with.

The biggest thing I am worried about though when companies start profiling us, handover it over to governmental institutions who then uses this profiling information to make life to hell. There is no transparency about how they profile you, what methods, criteria and metrics they use. Furthermore, we cannot trust whether our data has been or is manipulated, by whom and at point of time. Though the world knows you as Max who enjoys Disney movies to Max the pedofile. And with the speed of processing, this could happen so quick and we won’t even find out.

Movies and documentaries are a great source of inspiration but also projection, how the world could look like.

Movies such as Wall-E and Next Gen portray the future, whether robots are living with us side by side and even ruling over us. They keep track of us in what we do, how we behave and punish those who seem to betray the “system”. They pretty much dictacte on how we are supposed to live, make us sick, anti-social and just very disturbing:

Conclusion

The dependency on digital tools is increasing, despite all the data scandals. If we ask around and even ourselves, whether we could live without most of the tools, I am sure the answer is no. We should also consider the emergence of Artificial Intelligence. What frightens me is who possesses the data, what is being done to process it and how will it turn into an action item without our permission? I do not mind if companies have my data, but I am rather afraid about how it is being utilized and turned against us. My favorite scenario is what happens when my bank decides to write a 0 on my account balance, by just simplay pushing a button.