Insider
Media and Technology
ever more accurate predic-
tions on what motivates us,
what we do, where we go
and where we spend our
money. For those of you
with sports watches that
record your steps, level
of exercise, heartrate,
even duration of sleep,
are we sure we ever re-
viewed the data agree-
ments that accompanied
the device when we first
set it up? Such health
and lifestyle data is in-
credibly valuable to
businesses. When the
former Amazon chief
scientist states categori-
cally that ‘the time has
come to recognise that
privacy is just an illu-
sion’, it is time for us all
to take note. His point is
that we create a data trail
every day, it is happening
every day, day in and day
out, and we can’t stop it,
short of going off grid and
living in some remote wil-
derness.
Still not convinced that you
have a data trail? A Ger-
man investigative journal-
ist wanted to show how
easy it is to gain access to
sensitive information on
people in senior occupa-
tions. She used a fake
name, set up a fake compa-
ny with its own website.
Via companies that gather
data about people’s inter-
net usage, she was able to
gain access to sensitive
information from URL’s
(Uniform Resource Loca-
tors or web addresses to
you and I) visited by 20
prominent people. What
kind of data did she ac-
cess? Well, someone’s com-
plete financial records, the
browsing history of some poli-
ticians and the daily porn hab-
its of a judge! What’s more
shocking than that list, is that
all of this data came from a
‘plug-in’ that the users had
installed! A ‘plug-in’ is a soft-
ware component that modifies
an existing program. While
collating this data was illegal,
the company that sold it was
based outside the EU and was
never prosecuted. When the
journalist. Svea Eckert, was
asked what she thought of this
experience, she compared it to
the time ‘when people were
not wearing seatbelts in cars’.
“We
are
driven by
the
con-
venience
of modern
life, even
if it comes
at a con-
siderable
price. ”
change. Lobbying groups
look to draw attention to
what is happening and
oblige governments to
bring in stricter regula-
tions and stronger penal-
ties. The issue is most of
us that are sharing our
data every day on web-
sites, devices and social
media have essentially
accepted that this is the
way things are, that we
don’t have a great level of
privacy and we don’t
even consider whether it
is right or wrong. We are
driven by the conven-
ience of modern life, even
if it comes at a considera-
ble price.
So, what does the future hold?
Is our privacy gone forever?
The only thing that seems to
check the drive towards com-
panies collecting more data is
regulation and this has been
brought about by lobbying for
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