Privacy? What Privacy?
Every so often we are regaled with attention-grabbing headlines announcing the demise of the individual’s right to privacy or how Big Brother has a constant roving eye over us all, recording the minutiae of our very existence.
We grumble because we are fingerprinted at airports and we complain because our local High Street has more surveillance cameras than street furniture. We complain because our letterbox is stuffed daily with useless marketing flyers for products we are not interested in.
Gone are the days when we could go about our business without wondering if our every move is being filmed, monitored and ‘ogled’ by someone in authority. We usually blame this state of affairs on governments, officials with an unhealthy paranoia for security and the media.
I would argue, however, that we are as much to blame as the authorities are. The way we have embraced technology – from the use of email to blogging and social networking – has pushed us into a situation where, albeit unconsciously, we have given up a part of our right to privacy.
Data about us can be found everywhere. If you have a loyalty card with your local store, your details are running around in their systems; if you purchase items online, your details are there as well as a nice long list of your personal shopping preferences; if, like nearly half a billion others, you have social network profiles and post pictures and daily updates of what you’re doing, that data is available in a public forum; if you love tweeting, well thanks for keeping us informed that you’re going on holiday.
Our browsing activity is monitored through cookies on our PCs – what people do online in the privacy of our homes is trapped in a small file – but do most people care? No, they don’t. Today, we are so used to running around with tablets, smartphones full of personal data, photos, contacts, videos, emails, and so on, that we tend to give little thought to security or that we are carrying ‘our personal lives’ on a piece of hardware.
My point being that technology has ‘liberated’ us to such an extent that our lives are somewhat dictated by the technology that we use – and that means sharing information about ourselves; details which 20 years ago could only be found in a register gathering dust in some government office. And, unless you were kind of high-profile individual, even the information stored there was relatively limited.
20 years ago we wouldn’t give an album of photos to anyone except close family; today, we upload photos to the web and share them on Facebook. Ironic, isn’t it?
What is amazing is that we do so without batting an eyelid. We willingly provide our credit card details online; we happily use our loyalty cards; we share our non-working lives with friends and acquaintances on a daily basis through Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and so on. We almost automatically tick the box on user licence agreements without reading the small print.
In many ways, our lives have become more public than ever before. To partake of today’s technology, we have chosen to put aside privacy. Some of us are more careful than others; but not everyone understands the risks. And that is when privacy issues could become a real concern.
About the Author: David Kelleher
David Kelleher is Director of Public Relations at GFI Software. With over 20 years’ experience in media and communications, he has written extensively for business and tech publications and is an editor and regular contributor to Talk Tech to Me.
Now, I engage in social networks and loyalty programs and such as much as anybody else, really. I don’t mind my information being out there under typical circumstances, but considering that recent admission that electronics are being shipped into the country with existing malware installed as a means of backdoor access, I begin wondering exactly where this is all leading, just how much information I’m not voluntarily offering up is being collected. That’s the thing that worries me.
Sorry, but I can’t agree with you at all. Just because we have embraced technology that doesn’t mean we have to give up our right to privacy. We have always given data/information to 3rd parties. Before the Internet, we still had credit cards, we still had birth certificates and driving licences, but the parties we gave that information to could be trusted. The key is now who can be trusted with our data? Why do simple membership sites want my date of birth, home address and phone number. Do they need it so I can be part of a forum about home audio? No they don’t and as a matter of principle I don’t enter it.
What is more, I don’t upload all my pictures to social networks and I don’t tweet about where I am going on holiday. This has nothing to do with the technology. Before social networking I wouldn’t take a full page ad in a local paper to announce my travel plans, so why would I do it now?
The problem isn’t that we have been ‘liberated’ by the technology. Also the technology certainly doesn’t dictate what information I share. It comes down to ignorance or laziness.
Don’t let the technology control you, you control it. Post only what you would be happy for a complete stranger to know. When you fill in sign up forms on websites, either refuse to fill them in if they are asking for too much private information, or use false information.
Don’t be conned into thinking this is the way it is in the 21st century. It doesn’t have to be.
Social media has its ways. Joining one, whether you like it or not, will compromise a person’s privacy. Google+, for instance, requires all its users to divulge certain information about themselves. If not, the system will automatically delete noncomplying accounts. Google+ has already announced this policy. It will delete all “private” profiles.
As our world is getting smaller and smaller because of effective and hi-tech communication, expect your privacy to be affected.
@ Harold. Thanks for your comments Harold. All very valid points. I agree that just because we have embraced technology, it doesn’t mean we have to give up our right to privacy, however, very few people act in the same manner as you do. The problem is that many people share too much personal data and they take the approach ‘oh, that won’t happen to me’ or ‘my data is safe, who’s going to see it’.
No wonder that HR firms are looking at social networking sites for background information on prospective employees – they are looking at comments, photos and general behaviour and using that information, in part, when recruiting. I have come across photo albums uploaded by young people that should never be online. Some tweets are innocuous but others can be extremely harmful – there have been cases when employees tweeted that they are off to an important meeting with company X or they comment on something that has happened within the company… a situation that management would have preferred not to highlight.
I perfectly agree with your last two statements and that is exactly how it should be… some people follow your advice to the letter. Unfortunately, I think they are a minority.
Technology should not dictate how I use technology, but it has certainly made it easier for data to be shared and people are willing to do so.
@David Kelleher Thanks for your follow up comment, much appreciated.
Harold,
While you display remarkable common sense for this day and age, remember that there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people who who are clueless as to the risks they’re exposing themselves to online. We need articles like this to educate those people, if nothing else.
I have to concur with the disagreeing party here. A vehicle is far faster, easier to own, and more comfortable than a carriage. but an idiot with a horse carriage technically had no chance of causing numerous fatalities for multiple 3rd parties in a high speed freeway accident. its just that new technologies come with new threats and imposed issues, we, the users would just have to be educated, vigilant, and prepared to prevent those risks from materializing. A car could be labeled “deadly monster of the road”, but do most people view it that way? Do the stats not support that majority of people try their best to take precautions and other measures to ensure the safety of themselves and others on the roadways? if not, auto insurance companies would not have existed! But so do we have blogs and companies and products dedicated to online security and privacy matters… people just need to adjust, it takes time. the masses have barely adopted infant technologies. time will make it right for most
I agree that millions of people are even not aware about the privacy risks they face in today’s technology-filled world. One thing that really irritates me is that very often our privacy is ripped for profit – take social networks. Why do I have to register with my real name? Why can’t I use a pseudonym – they will have my real name but not the whole world will know what I do and what I think on particular topics. If users could use pseudonyms and if they don’t upload personally-identifying photos, their privacy won’t be comprised. But the sites benefit from having real persons and this is why they enforce the policy.