Privacy and security is the most important issue of our time.
I am sure everybody feels like someone is watching them.
Yes, I know that most of us don’t care about it. But we could have a powerful impact when we are united. We should look at this matter in perspective. Let’s remember the most tragic example of the data scandal.
The Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal
This scandal concerned the obtaining of the personal data of millions of Facebook users without their consent by a consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to be used for political advertising [1]. Cambridge Analytica used the data of up to 87 million Facebook profiles to provide analytical assistance to the 2016 presidential campaigns of Ted Cruz and Donald Trump [2].
It is not surprising to see that Facebook is on the top of the list showing the personal data collection. Wow, Facebook! &70.59 personal data collected! Knowing that Mr Zuckerberg also owns WhatsApp, Instagram, I really feel terrified.
I like this study by Clario. I have to nominate this success*.
Please have a look at it!
Why would I like to share this article with you? I know it is really hard to avoid social media nowadays but I would like to ask you this question:
“Shouldn’t we be aware of this security and privacy problem and be more conscious about it?”
I want to give another example to you.
Strava is an internet service for tracking human exercise which incorporates social network features. It is mostly used for cycling and running using GPS data[3]. The app gives away the location of secret US army bases according to a new published 3 years ago. Soldiers used the app like normal people but they didn’t consider the danger of sharing their location.
We all know that big brother is watching us (Salute to George Orwell, 1984). They listen to our phone and suggest the product what we exactly talked about with our friends a minute ago.
Recently, artificial intelligence algorithms take place and they are quite talented, also intelligent to know us better by the amount of data we provide every day. I don’t want to be super sceptical but the knowledge is power!
Scientia potentia est (Knowledge is power).
[1]Chan, Rosalie. “The Cambridge Analytica whistleblower explains how the firm used Facebook data to sway elections”. Business Insider. Retrieved May 7, 2020.
[2]Confessore, Nicholas (April 4, 2018). “Cambridge Analytica and Facebook: The Scandal and the Fallout So Far”. The New York Times. ISSN 0362–4331. Retrieved May 8, 2020.
