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Digital Privacy and Security- The Current Situation
Privacy is a fundamental right, and essential to democracy, liberty, and freedom of speech. Our privacy is being abused by governments (with mass-surveillance), corporations (profiting from selling personal data) and cybercriminals (stealing our poorly-secured personal data and using it against us). Security is needed in order to keep your private data private, and good digital security is critical to stay protected from the growing risks of cybercrime.
Who's Collecting Our Data?
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.
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. 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, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft) 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 their AI systems have refered from our data.
Our computers, phones, wearables, digital assistants and IoT have been turned into tracking 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.
Cybercriminals
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.
What data is Collected
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 of a page, 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 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 determine your elegibility for certain products or services (such as insurance, credit cards etc)
- 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 their 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
Why Data Privacy Matters
Data Privacy and Freedom of Speach
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.
Data Can Have Control Over You
Knowledge is power; Knowledge about you is power over you. Your information will be used to anticipate your actions and manipulate the way you shop, vote, and think. When you know you are being watched, you subconsciously change your behavior Without privacy, you might be so afraid of being judged by others, even if you're not doing anything wrong.
Data Can Be Used Against You
Your personal information and private communications can be "cherrypicked" to paint a certain one-sided picture. It can make you look like a bad person, or criminal, even if you are not. Data often results in people not being judged fairley- standards differ between cultures, organisations, and generations. Since data records are permant, behavior that is deemed acceptable today, may be held against you tomorrow. Further to this, even things we don't think are worth hiding today, may later be used against us in unexpected ways.
Data Collection Has No Respect For Boundtries
Data collection has no respect for social boundaries, you may wish to prevent some people (such as employers, family or former partners) from knowing certain things about you. Once you share personal data, even with a party you trust, it is then out of your control forever, and at risk of being hacked, leaked or sold. An attack on our privacy, also hurts the privacy of those we communicate with.
Data Discriminates
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. This data can lead to discrimination of minority groups in areas such as employment, marketing, credit scoring and criminal outcomes.
The "I Have Nothing to Hide" Argument
Privacy isn’t about hiding information; privacy is about protecting information, and everyone has information that they’d like to protect. Even with nothing to hide, we still put blinds on your window- and we wouldn't want your search history, bank statements, photos, notes or messages to be publicly available to the world.
For online privacy to be effective, it needs to be adopted my the masses, and not just the few. By exercising your right to privacy, you make it easier for others, such as activists and journalists, to do so without sticking out.
There's more to check out!
- Ultimate Personal Security Checklist
- 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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