Privacy is a fundamental human right. It’s the right to define for yourself what, when and how much information you’d like to share with someone. The biggest misconception is that it only affects people that have something to hide. Which is completely false, since we all have things we wish to keep private (there is a reason why toilets have doors, why bedrooms have curtains, why some conversations are happening behind closed doors, etc.).
I mean if you decide to poop in the middle of the street… I don’t know man… đ€·ââïž …but(t) it is your choice đ© (as long as you don’t harass other people). But this is exactly the whole point: It is your choice.
Protecting your privacy is basically protecting the freedom of choice. It’s key to ensure self-determination. But also to ensure human dignity and safety.
Protecting your privacy is basically protecting the freedom of choice.
If your choice with online privacy has been like “ahh whatever! I got nothing to hide” then this article is for you! I’d like to help you to rethink your choice.
With online privacy there are basically two problems:
1. Sometimes the choice is made for you and you don’t have the freedom to decide for yourself.
2. Some people aren’t aware that there is a choice and aren’t aware how life changing/threatening it might be.
Major internet privacy issues
User tracking
Search engines help you find stuff on the internet. But you should be aware that (most commonly known) search engines do log every move you make. They collect your search history and also track websites you visit. Some are even integrated with your browser and track your full browsing history. Combined with all the other information they collect, these information can be used for profiling. Or in other words: They create a virtual copy of you. They know what you like and what you hate. They know if you’re single, married and how many children you have. They know what you cooked for dinner last night. They know a ton of other things but let’s keep it short: everything you search for reveals something about you. These information are widely used for personalized ads. Profiling becomes a serious privacy issue, as soon as a digital profile can be associated with the real you (which is no problem for data-matching algorithms). This can be even more critical when you take data breaches into account
Mobile Apps
Nowadays most people spend many hours using their phones. Too many apps request your phone number, email address, location details, contacts, messages, access to your photo library and/or access to your microphone/camera.
But do we really know what they do with these information?
- The scanner app you’re scanning your medical reports with…
- The weather app that tracks your location and every move…
- The social media app (let’s call it “Facebook”) that tracks you even if you’re not using their service…
- The flashlight app that enables your camera…
- This fun app that shows you what Disney character you are, that sends the face recognition data to a dubious server…
- This super cool game that leaks your call logs (fun fact: Snowden actually mentioned Angry Birds when he blew the whistle on the NSA and their surveillance tactics)…
- This app that analyses your screen time…
Identity theft
Very little information are required for someone to steal your identity and even hack into your banking accounts. Sometimes criminals using Phishing to trick you into giving them sensitive information but sometimes you can just look at someones Instagram story to find their credit card details…
I think awareness is king! By just being aware about this privacy (and security) issue you can make better decisions while using the www.
Data breaches
Even if you’re like “I trust Google with my data“, “I trust Apple with my data“, “I trust Meta with my data” or “I trust *insertyourcompanyhere* with my data” just remember data breaches are actually a very common thing and there is no guarantee that *insertyourcompanyhere* won’t have a data breach in the future. Even if it seems unlikely for a big tech company to have a data breach next week, there is absolutely no guarantee to know how the situation looks in 20-30 years.
Just a small data breach for a small online shop is enough for your credit card information to leak. A good question for you to ask would be: which online shops do have my credit card information. This is great example because it’s easy to understand but when you think about what we just learned about user tracking it gets very very concerning!
Indistinct internet privacy issues
Political situation
Maybe you don’t care about targeted ads and data breaches aren’t a big deal for you. But let me give you one example why every person must care about what they share:
The political landscape can change in an instant! Just remember horrible events like WWII… Nobody knows what the future brings.
Nobody knows what the future brings.
History teaches us how quickly whole states and countries can change. Sometimes in the least expected moment.
Just thing less than 5 years back. Could you have ever imagined that we would have COVID lockdowns around the world? It’s just one simple example, but fact is: nobody knows the future.
Therefore, even if you trust companies with your data (I don’t see any reasonable reasons why someone would say that – but let’s imagine you do trust Facebook, Google, etc.) there is no guarantee that they’re not forced into sharing YOUR data with a higher power (countries, states or similar).
Tomorrow we may live in a world, with a cruel leader that hates chicken burgers. đ And everyone that likes chicken burgers is persecuted and thrown into jail. What about all your food-pics now? đ”âđ« Even if it seems very dumb and unlikely now, you can’t predict what tomorrow holds. It’s worth a thought.
Personal security
This is a short paragraph: I hope I don’t need to tell you, that if your posting pictures of the contents of your safe online, you may have a visitor tonight. đŠč
How this choice could change your life and why it’s crucial
I hope you’re realizing by now, how crucial this choice of yours is and how crucial it is that it will remain your choice! You don’t have to be a terrorist to have something to hide.
You don’t have to be a terrorist to have something to hide.
Facts
- You’re being tracked everywhere – for good and for bad (for science, for technical purposes, for statistics, for ads, …)
- Your data is like a currency – you’re paying to use services with your personal information (and you need to find a good balance without isolating yourself & still using the potential of technology)
- Information rules the world (and it often costs YOUR privacy)
- Data and information are more valuable than oil, gas or gold (and as we all know, many wars have been fought because of oil, gas and gold – some say there might soon be one because of data/information…)
- Often you have little to no control over your data + you don’t know exactly what happens with your information (in theory there are laws like the GDPR, but in reality I haven’t found anyone that could explain me in detail how Google really uses my data)
- Privacy isn’t only about what you share (e.g. on social media) but also what companies take from you and how they process your data (without us understanding how – I mean these algorithms are crazy)
- You can be targeted by anyone (not only by the platform which privacy policy you accepted). You can be targeted for political or other purposes. Others can use data about you to change your worldview and I think this is something everyone should be aware of! A great example is what Cambridge Analytica did during the United Kingdom’s Brexit campaign and the 2016 United States elections (if you have no idea what the hack I’m talking about, there is a Netflix documentary called “The Great Hack” just to give you some idea what I mean by that – I would recommend to watch it, just to increase awareness)
- Whatever you do: you’re leaving a digital footprint
Questions to ask yourself
I have some question for you which you should answer for yourself if your surfing/using the internet:
- Do I want my medical records, bank statements, or certain items from my shopping cart to be widely known?
If your answer is no: Am I aware that I’m (probably) sharing meta data (or that meta data from me is collected) that allows conclusions about my health, my financial situation and my shopping behavior? And am I okay with that? - Which services do I use and how much data do I share with them?
- How can I protect my privacy and my family?
And then there is social media, where it’s super easy to get hold of someones personal information (like home address, friends’ names, favorite restaurant, etc.) without any fancy algorithms. Just by looking at their pictures, posts, tweets, …
Therefore, I have four more question for you to ask while posting things on the internet:
- Am I aware that this could be used to get my personal information?
- Who do I like to share this information with? (What are my privacy settings and who are my followers?)
- Do I need to share this? / Do I really want to share this?
- Do I trust this platform enough and can I be certain that these informations cannot be used against me in the future?
I just had some thoughts about privacy and wanted to share these with you. I hope this article is beneficial to you in some way.
Cheers.