personal-security-checklist/0_Why_It_Matters.md

## Why Digital Privacy Matters

Privacy is a fundamental right. It is being abused by governments (with mass-surveillance), corporations (making money out of selling our personal data) and cyber criminals (using our own data against us).

### Government Mass Surveillance
Intelligence and law enforcement agencies need surveillance powers to tackle serious crime and terrorism. However, since the Snowden revelations, we now know that this surveillance is not targeted at those suspected of wrongdoing- but instead the entire population. All our digital interactions are being logged and tracked by our very own governments.

Mass surveillance is a means of control and suppression. When you know you are being watched, you subconsciously change your behavior, it has this chilling effect. A society of surveillance is just 1 step away from a society of submission.

### Cyber Crime
Hackers and cybercriminals pose an ongoing and constantly evolving threat. With the ever-increasing amount of our personal data being collected and logged - we are more vulnerable to data breaches and identity fraud than ever before.

In the same way, criminals will go to great lengths to use your data against you: either through holding it ransom, impersonating you, stealing money or just building up a profile on you and selling it on, to another criminal entity.

### Corporations
On the internet the value of data is high. Companies all want to know exactly who you are and what you are doing. They collect data, store it, use it and sometimes sell it on.


Everything that each of us does online leaves a trail of data. If saved and used correctly, these traces make up a goldmine of information full of insights into people on a personal level as well as a valuable read on larger cultural, economic and political trends. Tech giants (such as Google, Facebook, Uber, Amazon, and Spotify) are leveraging this, building billion-dollar businesses out of the data that are interactions with digital devices create.

Our computers, phones, wearables, digital assistants and IoT have been turned into bugs that are plugged into a vast corporate-owned surveillance network. Where we go, what we do, what we talk about, who we talk to, and who we see – everything is recorded and, at some point, leveraged for value. They know us intimately, even the things that we hide from those closest to us. In our modern internet ecosystem, this kind of private surveillance is the norm.

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## What data is Collected about You
Every interaction that you have an internet-connected device is logged. This includes all the data that you physically enter, as well as everything that is passively collected, such as your clicks/ scrolls amount of time spent looking at each part, etc, and finally data that is aggressively collected through background processes, GPS, microphones and sometimes cameras. All this data is sent to servers, where you have no guarantee of how it is stored, what it will be used for, or if it will ever be sold.


## What Happens to Data that is Collected about You
- It can be sold. Data brokers pay a high price for peoples personal details and habits
- It can be used to show you ads. You may see different search results than someone else because your search engine is subtly trying to sell things to you.
- It can get into the wrong hands. Criminals use people's personal details to pull off scams, hold you to ransom, impersonate you to extract funds or further control over your digital life.
- It can allow both local and foreign governments to profile, and track you.
- It can be stored, indefinitely- and some of it can be potentially used against you in the future