Is There Privacy in the Digital Age?

My apps know exactly where I am without even asking me.

I woke up today with my smartphone, a tablet, and a laptop next to me. I took a look outside my window to check the weather. It looked cold. I confirmed it by looking at my weather apps on my phone and tablet. Great! It’s going to be a cold day.

My apps know exactly where I am without even asking me. They automatically get your location info the minute you sign on to a wifi hotspot. Oh, and if they have the GPS feature built-in, it will automatically turn on by default and search for your location. Convenient? Yes. I don’t have to waste my time by punching in my location. Saves me a bunch of keystrokes.

Someone is calling me on the phone and I don’t even know who it is because it is a strange number. I pick up and talk. Oh, it’s actually one of my friends whom I haven’t talked to in a long time. We chatted and then I hang up. My phone asks me if I want to save the number as a contact. Yes, please! It then proceeds to ask me another question. Do you want to save the new contact as a Google contact? Hmmm…good question. Should I?

This was the moment when I started to ask myself with a deeper sense of curiosity. (I have always saved all of my contacts to Google so that I can retrieve them from any device anywhere anytime and I have never once questioned myself whether I should or not save the contacts to Google). How many contacts of mine does Google store so far? Does Google know all of my contacts and the categories I put my friends under? Does it know what nicknames I give my friends on my contact list? Will some of my contacts unfriend me if they know what nicknames I give them? Will Google punish me if I decide not to save my contact to Google?

As I start to question myself these, I realize that I willingly submitted all these information into my smartphone. I did it because I had a sense of privacy. Somehow in my mind I keep telling myself that only Google and I have access to my information. Well, after watching a recent documentary called “Terms and Conditions May Apply” I can throw that out the window. It turns out that in 2002 Google changed its privacy policy to say that they can use your private information and give it to the government if they request it.

You have nothing to hide ‘til you do.” — Professor Zeynep Tufekci

Okay, but if I don’t do anything illegal then I should not be afraid. Right? That is the most common argument. Why be afraid if we don’t have anything to hide? Well, everyone always has something to hide. Prof. Zeynep Tufekci once said, “You have nothing to hide ‘til you do”, and she is right. People generally have a false sense of security because in a police state, they have a sense that they are perpetually being watched and as such, they come to regulate their behaviour.

I completely agree with Tim Rayner’s position on Bentham’s ideal prison—the Panopticon. In this digital age, especially on the free platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, we are indeed the product and as such, we as the products are constantly monitored by the producers. The use of hashtags in our tweets and Facebook posts can be convenient for us to get discovered and we use them willingly because we want to get recognition from others and possibly because of our sincere need to share with others. But Facebook, Twitter, and other companies know that the use of hashtags make their work a lot easier. We connect the dots for them. Willingly.

In sharing online, we are playing to a crowd. On some level, we acknowledge this. The crowd consumes the content that we share and, if we are favoured, it passes it on. The crowd honours the identity that we create by sharing this content.” — Tim Rayner

So how do we go about in this world if we want to navigate where privacy ceases to exist? I don’t think there is not much we can do since it might be too late. Sure, we can say that if we push our governments to pass bills to protect us as citizens, there will be some layer of protection, but at what cost? Big companies pay huge amounts of money every year to lobbyist so that bills do not get passed on the floor. Probably the only logical way to navigate in this world in private that I can think off is by gaming the system. Put in false information in everything that you submit. That, or turning off your devices.

Resources:
Terms and Conditions May Apply
Foucault and social media: life in a virtual panopticon
The Innovation of Loneliness

Credits:
Top picture by Flickr user arnoKath (https://flic.kr/p/9yfeKE) Used under the Creative Commons license.
Privacy: the game by Zabou photo by Flickr user Boring Lovechild (https://www.flickr.com/photos/boringlovechild/12866541165/in/photolist-kAYoqD-9RHao-5SBuRK-bjYdrL-9tczCJ-831J8g-834SES-834SJL-834SHd-6jfHdk-aPbFnZ-aPbFrt-24Hqs-8ifccL-aovqDn-JKiUd-jzNjgQ-byhKCC-3vSK4-27aiK-b3Gxs-8w6Crw-7YDQ8C-9L4AB4-9L7oz3-9L4ABR-bMcRQM-5dmvBr-9L4ACp-9hNTVz-9XfQdD-huogFJ-725xDC-3kmVG-7ewG11-9kdLqg-nekY4U-wQTFe-3HsNVk-Ah9Uy-8PqJV4-985VqR-8tdwxg-gh76GY-831Jaa-7VjZ36-cw9RT-6GtR7a-88DmCc-51G2vF). Used under the Creative Commons License.