Digital Culture in Today's Age
Recent events around Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, and the US presidential election. They have been the culmination of a situation that has been growing for years and that has ended up exploding now.
One of the comfort traps offered by the internet is the exchange of free services in exchange for our data.
In principle, it is something harmless. To access a service, apparently, we just have to register. We give our name, email and we ready to use these services. But the reality that exists in the fine print is quite different.
These companies live on our data. They use it to show us publicity, offer other services, use us as currency to charge others, etc. and fundamentally to know each other better and commercially exploit this information (either on a personal level with our email or at an aggregate level with our cookie).
We are not saying they are the “demon”. This is how things have worked for many years.
This is something that many of us have clear, right? So why are these things still happening?
Why are there still problems with privacy and the management of our data?
Digital culture is completely free & has a big part for the blame
One of the problems that we drag from the beginning of the internet is the culture of everything for free.
In the beginning, it was necessary that the contents and services were free to start creating a digital community. The problem is that more than 20 years later, things are only beginning to change.
We began to see normal pay for some services (music is consolidating a new stage with models like iTunes Music or Spotify ), but usually, we are allergic to pay for what we have been using for free for years.
What would you like to pay for using the Google search engine or your webmail? And pay to use Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin?
The vast majority would not even consider it. The problem is that the jump to the payment model is very difficult. It would probably mean the bankruptcy of many of the services. And because they are so much more profitable, the Internet has been established indirect revenue models and freemium.
This brings us to the current problem with the data.
We have sold our digital “soul”
This is the reality. With some or other nuances, but it is the truth. The free Internet of the beginnings has led us to ignore such basic issues as our privacy, and what is worse, we have become a wimple in order not to pay and everything is as comfortable as possible.
We give our contact information, we give access to our data to all kinds of applications, we share our location, we use our access data to connect applications, to publish content … the list is huge and if you think about it, we are putting sensitive information at risk ( We are referring to this with digital “soul”).
The other big problem is that most of the netizens are not aware of what they are doing, they are not aware of the consequences of pressing “Ok” and “accepting the conditions of service” (that hardly anyone pays attention to).
Nothing happens, until it ends (Facebook).
Only you are responsible for your privacy on the Internet
Or only you are responsible for your data.
The good news is that all this has an arrangement if we are able to put some head in our digital activity.
As early as 2016, We started reflecting on privacy in social networks, and writing is a perfect basis for talking about it in the context of the Internet.
The first premise is that we are the ones who consciously or unconsciously put our data at risk. What is clear is that if a data is not published there is no way that anyone knows it. It’s that simple.
Therefore, following some basic guidelines we can have control:
- Think before you publish: both with the basic information of your profile, and with the things you share.
- Location: limits or eliminates the services that have access to your location. This is one of the most sensitive information.
- Applications: give permissions only to those that you really need and in doing so, check what information they can access and what permissions they have.
- Work in silos: it is very tempting to use Facebook / Google / etc. to register on other sites, or connect these social networks to other platforms in order to publish things. But if you really want to control your privacy, think carefully before doing it and just use it on those sites that really compensate you. For the rest, work separately: register in each site, copy and paste links to publish, etc.
- Secure services: register in those sites that you really need and check periodically if they are still useful to unsubscribe. And very important, configure the information you share, the advertising options, etc.
The blockchain will give us definitive control over our data
The unique login is an idea that has been raised for many years, but so far only has the possibility of being a reality with the blockchain.
This technology has the advantage that it gives us absolute control, disintermediation, etc., but remember that also at the data level, has an important disadvantage, and that is that the right to forget disappears (since the publisher cannot be modified).
I imagine that it will evolve and both these, and the current problems will be solved.
As far as our app Numbertank goes, we have built it in and around users privacy. We never share anyone’s information to anyone even for users within the app. They can merely see your first name and last name, which can be whatever you keep. We never share your phone number or email ids to random people as we see in many chat apps wherein once you join a group chat your number gets revealed to unknown users.
Our app is available in both Android and iOS app store. And our user base keeps on growing with time. As many users have seen the beneficial effect of socializing with friends and strangers alike. Without risking their personal data being revealed.
