Serious though
the personal data breach from Facebook is, it represents the tip of a very big
iceberg. If you look into it the fact soon becomes apparent that our personal
data trail is left everywhere. From what we search, log into, register on to
our credit / debit cards, deliveries, purchases to wherever we go with our
smartphones. It would be possible to build an hour by hour picture of what a
person did all day. If the so called
Internet of Things takes off then this will intensify so that anyone who made
an effort could find out what was happening in your home even if you weren’t
there. This cannot be re-boxed; all we
can do now is find a way to ensure it is reasonably safe. What makes it more
frustrating for the public is that we have to go through an increasing number
of ever more complicated passwords and set ups supposedly to protect our data
when in fact it doesn’t seem to.
One of the most
disturbing statements to emerge from the social media cognoscenti in recent
years has been the declaration that “privacy is over”. Tech boffins may get excited about this
concept yet the furore over the Facebook breach suggests they have misjudged
the public mood. Whether or not this breach influenced the result of the US
Presidential election is probably un-provable but people are becoming
increasingly uncomfortable with the idea that their online –and sometimes
offline- engagement can be scrutinised, packaged then re-used.
There are two
aspects of this. One is the amount of data that is collected in the first place
and what it’s for. Various cheery announcements tell us that it’s to increase
the customer experience, make it easier for us. However it does lock you in to
particular site like Amazon for example. It’s much easier to log in than to
fill out a form each time though I always leave non mandatory fields blank. The
idea that we can avoid marketing is a fantasy because it is everywhere, not
just online. Look at the amount of paper leaflets that still get pushed through
your letterbox in our supposedly digital world. You can ignore it and it’s not
realistic to expect legislation to act against basic advertising. In the end every
company you engage with- except government or NHS related ones- is a commercial
organisation that has to somehow make money and will seek to advertise their
product.
This data
harvesting is definitely annoying yet also amusingly literal. It also has an
uncomfortable reach. For example try
searching for something on Amazon and you’ll find that the next time you go in
there lots of similar products will be recommended for you. Whatever software
they use seems to have been programmed to imagine we only like a narrow
spectrum of things.
The second and
to my mind more serious aspect is how huge quantities of data seem to be able
to be moved in one fell swoop. This should be just illegal without a due
process and cataloguing under which the data is transferred. There are probably
some legitimate reasons why it should sometimes happen but the fact that it
seems to occur without any checks or approval is staggering. The idea too that
Facebook had no idea this had happened until after the fact suggests they have no
control over the data they mine.
Official advice as to how we can protect
our personal data incudes being alert to imposters, not providing any
information to companies unless you have approached them. If you dispose of a
device overwrite the hard drive using a wipe utility program, if it’s a phone
remove the SIM or memory card as well as removing all the records of calls,
photos etc.
They recommend using encryption software
which scrambles information you send over the Internet – look for a `Lock` item
on the status bar of your browser. Use strong creative passwords. Don’t post
too much personal information on social networks. This has implications other
than data theft. Announcing on Twitter or Facebook that you’re away on holiday
basically says `my house is empty now`. Best to save the holiday snaps till
you’re actually back. Don’t undertake personal transactions using public wi-fi.
In the end,
it’s no good blaming social media and others when data theft happens because we
are all complicit in giving too much away online when we don’t always have to.
It is perfectly possible to engage on these platforms without revealing things
that can help build too detailed a picture of who you are. It is legally
difficult for legislators and technically tricky for online security firms to
catch digital theft `in the act` so we shouldn’t be expecting a sea change any
time soon. It is up to those who run these large platforms – and those who use
them- to take responsibility for what we give away.
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