The age of eye merchants: navigating privacy amid surveillance, hacking, and data selling

8 min readAug 20, 2023

How to protect privacy in the age of surveillance, hacking, and iris peddling?

In our hyper-connected and often convoluted digital era, our personal data is more vulnerable than ever. From social media interactions to online purchasing patterns, every digital action we take is potentially trackable, recordable, and analyzable. The imperative for privacy isn’t merely about safeguarding personal details; it’s about upholding our fundamental human rights.

Table of Contents

The Evolution of Online Privacy
Privacy Under Siege: Notable Data Breaches and Their Implications
The Current Privacy Landscape: Statistics to Ponder
Web3: A Beacon of Hope or a Privacy Pitfall?
The Quest for the Ultimate Digital Safeguard
Conclusion: The Ongoing Battle for Digital Privacy
Further Reading and References

The Evolution of Online Privacy

This segmentation isn’t meant to be definitive, especially chronologically, given the cyclical nature of tech/market/social evolution.

The Internet’s Wild West Era: Initially, the Internet was a vast frontier where anonymity was the norm, fostering a sense of freedom and discovery.
Social Media’s Ascent: With the rise of platforms like Facebook and Twitter, the web began emphasizing personalization. This shift brought a dilemma: trading personal data for customized experiences, often termed the Personalization-Privacy Paradox.
The Dawn of Ad-Tracking: Recognizing the Internet’s commercial potential, ad-tracking emerged. This led to heightened surveillance concerns as users’ online activities were monitored for targeted advertising.
Data Protection Legislation: In response to growing privacy concerns, laws like Europe’s GDPR and California’s CCPA were enacted, empowering users with more data control.
Crypto’s Surge: The rise and evolution of the crypto sector brought with it renewed hope and subsequent challenges concerning privacy. Initially emerging as an innovative form of money, the crypto realm quickly expanded to include privacy-centric currencies like Monero or Zcash. Additionally, tools aimed at anonymization, such as mixers, were developed. However, some of these tools eventually became the target of legal pursuits.
AI’s Insatiable Data Appetite: The rise of AI has intensified data collection (selling) for training neural networks, potentially paving the way for unforeseen consequences in the future.
The Emergence of “Big Brother”: Enhanced surveillance measures, touted as solutions against illicit content, have often infringed on personal privacy (e.g. client-side scanning).
Trading Your Iris and Your Privacy for Profit: As of the time of writing, we’re observing a novel and concerning trend in the realm of data privacy. Worldcoin, in a bold move, is collecting biometric data through iris scanning. Driven by aggressive marketing and economic hardships in certain areas, individuals are queuing up to exchange their personal data for a modest sum of money. Alarmingly, there are emerging signs that this system lacks robust security measures, suggesting potential privacy breaches on multiple fronts in the near future.

Privacy Under Siege: Notable Data Breaches and Their Implications

Prominent data breaches, such as those at Facebook and LinkedIn, underscore data security vulnerabilities. These incidents have not only eroded public trust but also spotlighted the dire need for robust data protection. Here are some significant breaches to note:

The Chronicles of Privacy Demolition:

LinkedIn, 2012 (160+ million users)
Yahoo, 2013 (3 billion accounts compromised)
MySpace, 2013 (360 million users)
Adobe, 2013 (150+ million users)
Court Ventures, 2013 (200 million people)
Yahoo, 2014 (yep, again, 500 million users)
NetEase, 2015 (230+ million users)
Adult Friend Finder, 2016 (400+ million users)
Aadhaar, 2018 (1+ billion persons compromised)
Marriott International, 2018 (500 million clients’ data)
Dubsmash, 2018 (160+ million users)
Facebook, 2019 (500+ million users)
Alibaba, 2019 (1+ billion persons)
Sina Weibo, 2020 (530+ million people)
LinkedIn, 2021 (700 million users)
Facebook, 2021 (530+ million users)
Twitter, 2023 (220 million users’ emails)

The detailed List of data breaches looks like hell. And countless other breaches involve smaller amounts of leaked data or ones you might not even be aware of yet. Moreover, data breaches resulting from hacks are merely one scenario in which an individual’s right to privacy is compromised.

The Current State of Privacy: Statistics to Boost or Bust Your Hopium

For brevity, rather than delving deep into number-digging, I’ve provided links offering key insights into the state of digital privacy.

Web3: A Beacon of Hope or a Privacy Pitfall?

Let’s momentarily shift our focus to delve deeper into the widely-discussed crypto concept of Web3, particularly its implications for privacy.

Is Web3 Truly the Privacy Haven It’s Touted to Be?
A few years back, the idea of Web3 — a decentralized internet — captured significant attention. It promised users a new form of control over their data, finances, and personal information on the blockchain. Yet, this very promise has its pitfalls. Contrary to popular belief, Web3 isn’t the panacea for privacy woes. Blockchain data, by its nature, is transparent and accessible. Those equipped with the right technical acumen can easily pierce through the veil of pseudonymity, often mistaken for true anonymity.

Perhaps it’s more apt to label the current state of Web3 as “Web2.5” given its not-so-decentralized nature.

Beyond the blockchain’s confines, there’s a broader digital ecosystem to consider. The backend infrastructure, devices like laptops or smartphones, and various entry points and exit points can all be potential chinks in your privacy armor. And, for those thinking VPNs are the silver bullet — think again.

Furthermore, tools professing to provide anonymization, like the Tornado Cash mixer, may merely present an illusion of privacy. Specialists in on-chain analytics and data forensics have already exposed the limitations of these tools. They’ve successfully demixed Tornado transactions and highlighted the vulnerabilities inherent in many anonymization attempts.

The Quest for the Ultimate Digital Safeguard

More often than not, governments view our personal privacy as a hindrance to their objectives. It’s up to us to safeguard our privacy. However, we shouldn’t confront this challenge without the right tools at our disposal.

Despite the challenges, there’s a silver lining. A plethora of cutting-edge projects are on the horizon, with some in their nascent stages, while others have progressed to beta versions, testnets, or even full releases.

In the traditional Hi-Tech sector, notable solutions include browsers like DuckDuckGo and Brave, communication tools such as Signal Messenger, and the infamous Tor network.

Within the Web3 sector, privacy has increasingly become a focal point of recent research and innovation. This trend includes advancements in zero-knowledge proofs, as showcased by platforms like zkSync and Scroll; private blockchains; private smart contract networks, such as the Secret Network.

While there are a few instances of decentralized VPNs, my inclination leans towards the more ambitious vision of establishing a foundational ‘layer 0’ protocol, with its core emphasis on anonymity. This very concept is the foundation of the Nym ecosystem. With a profound dedication to privacy and other facets, Nym is at the forefront, actively participating in the use and implementation of zero-knowledge methodologies and integrations.

All in all, there’s a legion of “The Guardians of Web3 Privacy” now, and more are on the way.

Nym: Pioneering the Future of Digital Privacy

Nym is a beacon of hope for online privacy enthusiasts. With a clear vision, a meticulously mapped-out roadmap, and a dedicated team tirelessly working towards it, Nym aims to reshape the very fabric of the Internet into a decentralized and private space.

Positioned at the vanguard of the online privacy movement, Nym distinguishes itself from conventional systems. It introduces a decentralized, trustless layer-0 infrastructure, guaranteeing users the ability to communicate securely, free from any unwarranted intrusions. By effectively masking network traffic and ensuring the utmost confidentiality of data, Nym is setting new benchmarks for online privacy standards.

The foundation of Nym is built upon three pivotal components:

Nym Mixnet: Designed to thwart traffic analysis.
Nym Token: Serves as an incentive for privacy.
Nym Credentials: A crucial solution for anonymization.

The Key Concepts of Nym Mixnet

Decentralized: privacy for everyone
Permissionless: ensuring the availability of privacy
Trustless: privacy by default
Tokenized: it prevents operators from selling the customer
Open-source = transparency + quality + security

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DH9LXsRW33aY

As highlighted earlier, NYM’s roadmap is comprehensive, forward-thinking, and anchored in a visionary approach.

Conclusion: The Ongoing Battle for Digital Privacy

In the ever-evolving digital landscape, the quest for privacy is relentless. As users, the onus is on us to stay informed, vigilant, and proactive in safeguarding our digital rights.

In future articles, I’ll delve into more projects dedicated to safeguarding your privacy. Keep an eye out!

Please note: The content of this article solely represents the author’s personal perspective on the topic and should not be taken as professional advice.