It’s Time to Start Taking Your Privacy Seriously (Pt. 1)

Now, more than ever, is the time to start taking your privacy seriously. Technology companies are slowly squeezing themselves more and more into our lives. They’re learning our daily habits, our interests and hobbies, our favorite spots around town, etc. We’re gladly giving them this information in the name of convenience. If Google knows our routes to and from work, it can notify us to take an alternate route due to avoid traffic. If Facebook knows our musical tastes, it can recommend similar artists. But, at what point do these corporations learn too much about us? At what point do they go too far in their desire to improve our daily lives?

This is part one of a multi-part series titled, “It’s time to start taking your privacy seriously.” For this series, I’m going to explain why consumers should be more concerned about their privacy, how Google, Facebook, and Amazon are trying to learn as much about us as possible, and steps everyone can take to start taking our privacy back from the “Big Three.” Google, Facebook, and Amazon are not the only corporations who are questionably taking convenience too far (I’m looking at you Apple and Microsoft), but I’m going to focus on them because they are arguably the worst offenders. Lastly, this series will solely be about the relationship between privacy and corporations. The topic of “privacy and the government” is a whole other can of worms. To start, ask yourself a simple question “Would I want an individual to know my every move during a given day?” If the answer is no, why would you want a corporation to have that info? More specifically, a profit-driven corporation which makes revenue from selling what it’s learned about you. This is a valuable question everyone should ask themselves to determine their risk-to-convenience ratio.

While the Big Three have countless ways to track consumers and data mine, one of the newest and fastest growing methods is through smart home devices, or IoT (Internet of Things). They have all released at least one device which promises “enhanced convenience for the consumer.” These devices include the Google Home, Amazon Echo, and Facebook Portal. Publicly, Google, Amazon, and Facebook may be pitching these devices as opportunities to ease your day-to-day life. However, behind closed doors, they’re probably pitching the amount of data these devices will extract from you. They’ll know when you’re home from work. They’ll what time you wake up in the morning and even what you discuss with your friends and family.

Every new IoT device you purchase gives the Big Three more insights into your life. Even third-party IoT devices pose an equal or sometimes greater privacy risk than the smart speakers. If you have a Google Home or Amazon Echo, Google and Amazon require these devices to constantly be sending data to the Home or Echo for system integration. So, if you have Phillips Smart Hue light bulbs integrated with your Echo system, Amazon knows when the lights in the bedroom are turned on, even if you didn’t ask Echo to turn them on for you. There is literally no place to hide from Amazon in your own home. Smart speakers work by always listening for “activation phrases.” These activation phrases, “Ok Google,” or “Alexa,” wake up the device for it to start recording. So, they are always listening to spoken words within range of the microphone. Supposedly, they only record words spoken after the activation phrase, but there are reasons to doubt this.

The Big Three, along with their devices, are always watching and always listening, eagerly anticipating more data they can scoop up and store for future use. The data they collect is used to form a profile about you (interests, habits, views, etc.). The more data they collect, the more they learn about you. And they collect A LOT of data, I mean A LOT. Google does not charge for any of their services, yet they’re a multi-billion-dollar company. How do they earn such revenue? You got it, selling ads based on our data. Google tracked all those searches you’ve made for “Zac Efron shirtless” and then sold that info to movie studios. Don’t all those Baywatch advertisements make more sense now? Facebook is no better; if you stay logged it, it has trackers which follow you across the web, even after you’ve left the website. Both Google and Facebook’s trackers see where you go on the web, how long you’re there, and what you click on. If you also happen to use other Google products or services such as an Android phone, Google is literally always collecting data from you.

One of the big concerns with corporations learning so much about us is who sees this information. Supposedly, the Big Three do not sell data to third-parties, but it’s just lip service. Facebook has done it before, and telecommunication firms have a history of selling our location data to whoever will pay for it. Are we really supposed to believe the Big Three aren’t selling our data? Still, even if they are not lying and do not sell our data to others, plenty of risks still exist.

Data breaches are almost a commonplace nowadays. Facebook had a breach last year, so it can and most likely will happen again. Granted, the data in the Facebook breach did not contain sensitive information such as Social Security or driver’s license numbers, but the data could’ve still been very dangerous if it got into the wrong hands. Think about everything the Big Three probably know about you: your favorite movie, dog’s name, favorite sports team, mother’s maiden name, etc. Imagine how easy it would be to guess passwords or answer security questions if a hacker had this information. It could also be used to create a very believable spear phishing attack (a fake email which is very personalized to the recipient). What if a disgruntled employee gains access to all your data and decides to sell it to whoever will pay for it? What if that disgruntled employee has an ex-girlfriend and he wants to know her location history so he can stalk her? These are real threats, and they can happen.

The reality is, the Big Three are not going anywhere. They’re influence on our daily lives is only going to get larger, so it’s up to us to protect ourselves. Their appetite for our data is insatiable, and we just continue to feed them when we use their services, buy their products, and give them access to everything we do. However, there have been some steps in a positive direction. The EU passed the Global Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2016, and it became law last year. The Big Three now have someone to answer to about their data mining, but unfortunately it only applies to users in the EU. Still, GDPR will only slow the Big Three down in their ultimate quest to constantly track us, watch us, and listen to us. So, are you content with Google, Amazon, and Facebook knowing your every move?