The Importance of Digital Privacy
Technology is advancing at a rate unprecedented in human history, and will only continue to progress exponentially as time moves forward. The way that modern governments function is ancient in comparison, if they somehow were able to devote 100% of their time and energy to legislating all the new technologies coming into existence it would still be an impossible, Sisyphean task. Because of these factors, now more than ever it is important to be proactive in protecting your privacy.
Since laws are archaic or mostly nonexistent when it comes to how tech companies collect data about their users, the biggest platforms all require users to opt-out of having their information gathered instead of allowing them to opt-in. This means that by default the power is in the hands of the companies and not the user. Much more often than not it isn’t disclosed to the user the extent of the data about them that is being stored. The European Union passed a privacy law last year called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR for short) which is a step in the right direction, giving EU citizens more control over their data.
The goal of the biggest tech companies - whose business model is based around serving ads (Facebook/Instagram, Google, Twitter, etc.) - is to maximize the time users spend on their platform so that more ads can be displayed. This goal doesn’t take into consideration the well being of the user, morals, ethics, or the effect of downgrading the human race that it has, as the Center for Humane Technology puts it.
Last year, it was revealed that Facebook had launched an AI internally called the “FBLearner Flow” that uses the data it harvests from its users to predict how they will behave. These predictions are sold to advertisers and include information about whether or not a user will soon become disloyal to a particular brand. Companies are also given the ability to manipulate people’s news feeds in an effort to change or enforce the predicted outcome, and all of this is happening without the users' knowledge.
The 2016 US election showed the dangers of the mass accumulation of data. According to Facebook’s own estimate, 150 million Americans were targeted by Russian propaganda on their platforms during the 2016 election cycle.
The settings and tools tab on Facebook can seem daunting with its wide array of subtopics and options. Also, the Privacy tab doesn’t include all of the privacy/data harvesting options that are available, many are included in the Ads section. For those of us that don’t want to take the time to learn the ins and outs of this part of Facebook, Jumbo has developed a great tool to help people protect their information. However, while this is a useful tool, it is only a partial measure. It is still best to learn the intricacies of the privacy settings if you plan on still using Facebook, or, better yet, to stop using it altogether.
It is probably not a good sign that when you type ‘privacy Google’ into any major search engine that an entire Wikipedia page shows up with privacy concerns about the company. The extensive article has many alarming quotes including this from the CEO Eric Schmidt:
“If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”
I won’t get into the details of how this statement is problematic, if you want more on that, this article by the EFF offers a great response.
Another scary development is that in 2016, Google removed an internal privacy restriction with their DoubleClick ad service which prevented them from merging the data from DoubleClick with the rest of Google’s services. This means that they can now use the content of emails or documents in Google Drive to better target their users with ads.
The Wikipedia article mentioned above outlines the myriad ways Google has disregarded or compromised their users privacy. Although there are many concerns on that page, they are only the ones that are publicly known thanks to the efforts of journalists. It is safe to assume that these are only a fraction of the infractions that Google has made on behalf of their profits.
Conclusion
Legislative bodies falling short in regulating the tech industry has led to a Wild West situation of sorts. Companies have been able to operate mostly unfettered, harvesting data and manipulating their user bases with basically no limits. Because of this, it is up to the individual to safeguard their privacy as best they can, and the first step in this process is educating yourself and others. Through this, protective measures can be taken and public opinion can start to shift, thus placing pressure on companies and governments to do something about the erosion of our privacy.
Resources
- https://www.knightfoundation.org/reports/disinformation-fake-news-and-influence-campaigns-on-twitter — Report on the manipulation of Twitter for political gains
- https://ledger.humanetech.com/ — Comprehensive list of negative effects that big data and big tech has had on humanity
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy_concerns_regarding_Google — Google’s Wikipedia page on privacy concerns
- https://blog.mozilla.org/firefox/hey-advertisers-track-this/ — Mozilla blog explaining Track This to throw off advertisers
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/06/21/google-chrome-has-become-surveillance-software-its-time-switch/?utm_term=.3db508ed32ec — Washington Post article on how Google Chrome tracks its users
