Does Privacy Exist?
Part 2 of 2
Not read part 1? Check it out below.
Let’s clear things up
Observing the recent congressional house and senate testimonies given by Mark Zuckerberg one thing has become abundantly clear; the majority of people are under-educated on the data that is being collected, how it is being used and the purpose for collecting their data.
The issue is that companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (a Facebook company) have scaled rapidly and vastly becoming embedded into the fabric of society; being viewed as a service that we have a right to use, for free, without repercussion.
“I have been told the best things in life are free ~ I found them very expensive.” — E.A. Bucchianeri (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2798990.E_A_Bucchianeri)
Online services, whilst appearing to be free on the surface, are in-fact never completely free; you never get something for nothing. The same applies to free social networks, if they are really free how do they support such vast infrastructures?
Facebook alone is currently reporting 1.4 billion daily active users, a vast infrastructure to keep running. How do they pay for all of this: Data.
Signing up to services such as Facebook, and accepting the terms and conditions of the website, is the same as signing a contract. You are signing over your rights for the company to ‘sell’ your data to relevant parties.
Controversial questions are raised around this subject, if a user signs up to a service where they accept a contract in return for the use of the companies services, they are accepting that the company can monetize the data given; does this void the right to personal privacy?
Laws are in place to protect personal data however it’s unclear what can companies are permitted to do with your data. To exactly what extent does data become too personal to share?
The lack of transparency in what companies, such as Facebook, are doing with the data they collect, and the extent to exactly what they collect from us is one of the encompassing issues in the data privacy debate.
Users should be better advised about their online privacy when signing up for websites, making it more clear and intuitive what companies are going to use your data for and how you can ‘opt-out’ of your data being shared.
Education is key
The world needs educating on what privacy is, and why it should be protected. Knowing how data is being used and what can be done to protect against its misuse it is a prevalent issue.
Whilst the responsibility partially falls on the companies themselves, having personal responsibility for the data shared is vital to ensuring online privacy upheld. New GDPR laws coming into effect on the 25th May 2018 will have big implications on how companies can store and use the data they collect.
Whilst being cautious with the data you willingly provide to online services is a key first step in protecting your online privacy; it is important to gain an understanding of how data is unknowingly collected.
It’s key to remember that every action you take online can have multiple repercussions, for example browsing for products online generates data for companies to provide personalised targeting advertising.
Protecting digital privacy
The extent to how much we protect our digital privacy ultimately comes down to how much we value our data. There is always a tradeoff; the use of the service for the right to your data. We’ve come up with a few basic tips to help improve your online privacy:
- Social: lock down your privacy, most social networks, especially Facebook offer tools to help secure the data that is shared; they can sometimes just be hard to find.
- Browse incognito online to avoid detection.
- Reduce the amount of data you give and me reflective about the data you provide. Ask ‘why’ do they need this from me?
- Unregister from services, the laws vary by country to country but generally; companies have a responsibility to delete your data if you unregister from a service.
- Educate yourself, knowing what data is being collected, where they collect the data from and how they use the data is a key step to improving your digital privacy
If you want to find out more about why you should care about your digital privacy, check out this post
