Privacy, Online & Off

Worried. That is one word to describe how I felt after discovering my personal information is everywhere and my data will outlive me. Runner-up: confused- how does this happen?

Watching TED Talks such as Andy Yen's 'Think your email's private? Think again' lessons on the privacy (or lack thereof) of my personal information were eye-opening. I knew that, to some extent, the term "nothing is private" had to be true, partly from warnings from adults and career advisors to be cautious about all social media posts, especially for future employers. But they failed to warn that even if not posted on social media, personal information can still be shared.

I realized that every app, every website profile, every online shopping order, and every photo or video taken (whether posted or not) were all public. And not public in the sense of visible to society, but by becoming public information that spammers or scammers could access.

 

'Facebook's Invasion of Privacy as a Biz Model', for example, simply lays out the process by which private information is released. This frightened me because of just how easy it is to give out our information and sign away our rights without realizing it.

A contract of adhesion is a contract in which one party holds all the power, like clicking "I agree" when downloading a new app, or when signing paperwork. Data mining happens when users give out information such as an email, phone number, or enable location services, potentially allowing tracking malware and revealing more and more information layers.

All of this information helps create a digital dossier, which can include the websites someone visits and the products they buy, forming an image of who they are based only on actions. Companies use this information for behavioral marketing, which is marketing based on the behaviors of users, to be more efficient.

Now imagine this: If I tell gossip to my younger sister, and she tells her friends, once the gossip is shared with my sister, I no longer have control over who she tells. This is the third-party doctrine. When a first party voluntarily gives information to a second party, they have no power over third-party uses.

Invasions of privacy are scary, and they are happening every day. While using encryption can help protect against this, the government can still access data. 

So, be stingy with personal information. Read the terms before clicking "Agree." Decline services that are not wanted. And most importantly, do not believe that anything is truly private.

AI Disclosure: AI was not used in the research and information for this blog post. After writing, I used the platform Grammarly to double check spelling and grammar throughout the post.