The Not-So-Fine Print: Privacy in the Age of the Internet
Decoding how your privacy on the internet is compromised on a daily basis and how it affects you.
It’s Saturday afternoon, and you have decided to tackle the ever-growing list of websites and articles that you have bookmarked and tucked away in the “Read When Free” folder over the last three months. You sit with a cup of coffee and religiously open the links, five tabs at a time. The arrangement is out of the way, and you get to the most interesting part of the process — reading. Suddenly, a sleek-looking rectangle pops up, blocking your view. It announces itself in bold letters: “PRIVACY POLICY”, but within that sleek-looking rectangle, what awaits is a 120-pointer document in a dense language that you definitely cannot afford to read, not when you have some 20 tabs to read. “Gosh! Not again!” you blurt, trying to scroll away and leave the rectangle behind to continue reading, but it sticks and follows you around. Annoyed, you try to find the elusive cross button to shoo the rectangle away, and after some looking around, notice the “Dismiss” at the far end of the rectangle and click on it. “Phew, gone!” As you proceed to continue reading, you think of the number of times you would encounter the sleek rectangle today, and it makes you want to shut your laptop and take a nap. Happens to all of us, doesn’t it? What was supposed to be productive afternoons have often been disrupted a little by these sleek-looking rectangles.
A survey conducted in 2017 by Deloitte found that around 91% of people do not read the privacy policy and simply agree to the terms of service, and when it comes to the ages of 18–34, the number grows to 97%. The privacy policy (yes, that sleek rectangle) seems like a harmless, annoying thing that we ignore daily. Blindly accepting the privacy policies might not appear to invade our privacy, especially because we can’t physically see a person being invasive. However, accepting most of these policies allows the app and website developers to monitor our lives closely, invading our privacy and defeating the very purpose of privacy policies.
Privacy: a modern invention?
Rapid urbanization often promotes an individualistic mindset and independent living, which encourages more privacy for individuals. In stark contrast, rural or smaller towns encourage community living which does not allow privacy to the extent urban living does. No wonder some people argue that privacy is a modern invention, a by-product of urban living. However, the concept of privacy has been around for a long time. The Greek philosopher Aristotle distinguished between the public and private spheres of life. Even the biblical story of Adam and Eve suggests that they had the urge to hide their genitalia to keep it hidden and away from the eyes of others. Thus the concept of privacy isn’t necessarily a novel invention. With time, its connotations and the importance ascribed to it have evolved, but the idea of privacy has always been there in some form or the other. More importantly, people are aware of the extent to which their private lives are being revealed. The invention of the internet brings forward another challenge, the challenge of the unknown. As daily consumers of internet services, most of us do not know the ways in which our privacy is invaded and to what extent. Thus, with the rise of the internet and technology, protecting our privacy has become much more complicated.
Online privacy and public safety
The right to privacy has been legally recognised only recently in a lot of countries. The right to privacy was declared one of the fundamental rights in India in 2017. With the developments in technology and with more people getting access to the internet, protecting the privacy of people becomes more complicated, especially with incomprehensive laws in place. A Series of leaks of personal data by big companies such as Facebook, Air India, Domino’s, Upstox, and Mobikwik, which came to light in 2021, highlighted the immense breach in the privacy of crores of Indians. The companies mentioned above allegedly sold personal information such as bank account details, email addresses, passwords, and GPS locations of individuals to a hacker forum on the dark web. This information could easily be used for multiple purposes, from transferring money from bank accounts to cyber-stalking. Thus, the right to privacy is intricately connected to the safety and security of individuals. Cyberweapons such as the Pegasus can not only transmit existing data but also record data via the cameras and the speakers of a mobile phone. This brings to light how spyware can be used to track and collect information of some of the most powerful and influential people in the world, which poses a threat to their privacy but, more importantly, it is a threat to national security.
Hacking into personal data (with permission, of course!)
Even when companies do not sell sensitive information such as bank account details, accepting their privacy policies allows them to sell your search history information to other companies to facilitate targeted advertisements. Some people might see nothing wrong with this as they have nothing to hide. However, there might be cases where this information proves to be a cause of distress. One of the examples of this is the case of a teenage girl whose pregnancy was known to Target (a department store chain) before her father. Target sent coupons to the girl for baby clothes and cribs, and an angry father went to the store manager and asked why Target was encouraging his daughter to have a child. He asked them to stop sending such coupons. Later the father came to know about his daughter’s pregnancy and apologized to the manager. Target determined her pregnancy through the search history and the purchase history of the girl. This story brings out the uglier side of the consequences of the seemingly harmless data collection of our private information. Our data can also be sold to companies to manipulate prices. For example, the data from a calorie counting or fitness app can be sold to health insurance companies, which can, in turn, charge a higher premium to people whose fitness app data indicates an unhealthy lifestyle. Similarly, the data from our search history can be used to sell holiday packages for an upraised price.
Most people are familiar with telecallers who try to sell their products (yes, it is still a thing despite digital ads!) These callers are often equipped with some basic information about us — our name, age, and gender. A lot of people might have wondered where they get this information from. According to the daily advertiser, most of these companies are sold this information by other companies that collect your information before providing services. These calls are not only annoying (Free credit card? No thank you for the 23rd time!), but they also invade your privacy by getting personal information about you without your permission.
Some extreme cases of privacy invasion:
In some extreme cases, companies have used complicated privacy policies to trick people into borrowing money for interest rates as high as 876% (*hides her money*)! Such bizarre apps are mainly popular in Nigeria, India, and Kenya — CashBean, OPesa and OCash are some examples. Their loans are for as low a duration as 15–26 days, which might seem attractive, but proves to be another burden, considering the predatory interest rates. The acceptance of the privacy policy also allows these applications to download the contact list of the loan borrower. In case the borrower fails to return the money, these apps send text messages and call people to inform them about the user’s delay in payment and threaten to take legal action. In this way, the acceptance of the privacy policy of certain apps can lead to the disclosure of sensitive details about peoples’ private lives to their friends and family. Moreover, constant calls and messages prove to be a form of harassment for their friends and family, putting their privacy on the line.
After causing much hullabaloo, these apps have undergone some changes in their structure. However, their system still compromises the user’s privacy to some extent. Such applications can thrive due to the lack of data privacy laws in countries. Incompetent data privacy laws (or the lack thereof) provide loopholes which allow these companies to trick and harass multiple people. These instances highlight the urgency of implementing data privacy laws in every country. These laws should be set in such a way that the responsibility of privacy protection is not left in the hands of individuals, especially because most people do not understand the technical and complicated language used in the privacy policies of most websites and applications.
Watch out, folks!
If you don’t want to be on the receiving end of 2860 text messages and multiple random calls from machines which happen to know your names, the mantra is to practice internet hygiene. This includes (and this is as basic as it gets) having strong passwords. Follow the password guidelines of the websites you are registering on. It is also recommended that passwords do not contain full names, words, phone numbers, or other easily identifiable information (Coolshreya321 is crackable, folks — we are in 2022). It is also important to go through the privacy settings of all applications to prevent your information from getting into unwanted hands. One of the most essential steps is to get a reliable security software programme to maintain privacy and security online. It is all worth the effort!
Data is synonymous with power in the modern world, which is why all companies try to collect as much data as they possibly can. Most people might not see the negative effects of data collection in their daily lives. However, it is important to remember that it doesn’t take long for someone to undergo adversity due to their sensitive data ending up in the wrong place. It is, therefore, imperative that we have more conversations about data privacy, push for more comprehensive laws on data protection, and, most importantly, practice good internet hygiene so that privacy does not remain a modern myth.
Stay vigilant, folks, the road to safe internet is long and rocky!
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This article was written by Promiti Mitra and edited by Atotmyr and Vagisha Bhatia.
