The Internet is as necessary as oxygen for survival in the 21st century. Everyone relies on the internet for gathering and sharing information, connecting with friends, and showcasing world their talents. Well, while accessing the internet or signing up for various online services we are prompted to share our personal details.
We do agree to dozens of Terms and Conditions while signing up for these services without even reading them. Consequently, we face problems like data protection and online privacy. So here’s a detailed analysis of who is responsible for the protection of our personal data.
The Breakdown
We believe and trust in some of the biggest online services like Google, Facebook, and Twitter. Furthermore, we don’t hesitate to share our personal information with these big technological firms. Well, the problem arises when any third-party company gains access to our personal data.
Later this data can be used to show us interest-based advertisements based on our personal information and demographics. The issue is not only limited to advertisements, it can also be used for various categories of online threats.
Security Flaws Of Privacy And Data Protection
Major security flaws occur due to lack of proper protection and improper distribution of APIs to wrong companies and people. Later this information is further redistributed which makes things worse.
It is worth noting that, ethical hackers don’t cause major problems as almost every company easily recovers from these attacks and they are on a very small scale. So as a conclusion these problems occur due to lack of protection and improper monitoring by big technology firms.
Who Is Selling Your Sensitive Data?
Most companies track their user’s online activities and monitor their internet usage patterns. Well, this information is intentionally shared with different companies and organizations to show relatable content on a person’s feed. Consequently, this selling of data acts as one of the major sources of revenue for big firms.
You can easily solve this problem by opting out of advertisement personalization on your Android or iOS smartphone. It is worth noting that, doing this won’t stop showing advertisements, but it will prevent Facebook and other web services from tracking your activity on the internet.
Security Measures
A user can’t completely stop companies from making profits with their data, but there are a few steps that can significantly make your online presence more secure.
- Firstly, ensure that you turn-on two-factor authentication on every social media platform that you use. This will prevent anyone with your login credentials to directly gain access to your account. It acts as a preventive measure to ensures protection against any form of spam or fraud emails.
- Next up you can prevent Facebook from tracking your usage. This can be done by unchecking Ads based on your use of websites and apps, Ads on apps and websites off of the Facebook Companies and Ads with your social actions.
These were two simple steps that will definitely prove beneficial in some instances.
Recent Examples: Lack Of Security Measures
1. CobraPost Revealed Paytm
A sting operation video on mobile payments company Paytm, released by news website Cobrapost, shows Paytm Senior Vice President Ajay Shekhar Sharma allegedly saying that the Indian Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) had asked the company for user data. Consequently, a tech-firm shared users private data when forced by a government organization to do so.
2. Cambridge Analytica
Cambridge Analytica was the political consulting firm that did work for the Trump campaign and harvested raw data from up to 87 million Facebook profiles. Well, users were shown advertisements and search results based on the data collected from their profile and browsing patterns. It is one of the major scandals where private data was used for making big political moves.
Conclusion
As a conclusion, companies should focus more on users privacy and data protection, rather than incrementing their revenues. Personal data is highly confidential information that should not be made public at any cost. We as a user have very little access to protecting our data.
Hence, all the major companies are responsible for protecting our data and safeguarding it against any form of unwanted access. Moreover, hiding the security flaws is neither beneficial for companies nor the users. Lastly, we should use encrypted services for most of our business and personal communications.
BONUS VIDEO
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