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Digital Privacy and Security- The Current Situation
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 (stealing our poorly-secured personal data and using it 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. We, as users have no gaurantees that what is being collected is being stored securly, we often have no way to know for sure that it is deleted when we request so, and we don't have access to what theit AI systems have refered from our data.
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.
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, gyroscope measurements, 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. When you request for your information to be deleted- it often isn't- the data is almost ever-lasting.
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
Got nothing to hide?
Privacy isn’t about hiding information; privacy is about protecting information, and surely you have information that you’d like to protect. Even with nothing to hide, you still put blinds on your window- and you wouldn't want your search history, bank statements, photos, notes or messages to be publicly available to the world.
Privacy is a fundamental right, and you shouldn't need to prove the necessity of fundamental right to anyone. As Edward Snowden said, "Arguing that you don't care about the right to privacy because you have nothing to hide is no different than saying you don't care about free speech because you have nothing to say". There are many scenarios in which privacy is crucial and desirable like intimate conversations, medical procedures, and voting. When we know we are being watched, our behaviour changes, which in turn suppresses things like free speech.
You need privacy to avoid unfortunately common threats like identity theft, manipulation through ads, discrimination based on your personal information, harassment, the filter bubble, and many other real harms that arise from invasions of privacy. An attack on our privacy, also hurts the privacy of those we communicate with.
In addition, what many people don’t realize is that several small pieces of your personal data can be put together to reveal much more about you than you would think is possible. When different pieces of your data is aggregated together, it can create a very complete picture of who you are, where you spend your time. Further to this, even things we don't think are worth hiding today, may later be used against us in unexpected ways.
There's more to check out!
- Why Privacy & Security Matters
- Privacy-Respecting Software
- Privacy & Security Gadgets
- Further Links + More Awesome Stuff
Notes
Thanks for visiting, hope you found something useful here :) Contributions are welcome, and much appreciated - to propose an edit raise an issue, or open a PR. See: CONTRIBUTING.md.
I owe a lot of thanks others who've conducted research, written papers, developed software all in the interest of privacy and security. Full attributions and referenses found in ATTRIBUTIONS.md.
License
Licensed under Creative Commons, CC BY 4.0, © Alicia Sykes 2020
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