Internet Privacy: Are we playing a loosing game?
Our perception of anything and everything today is incomplete without the intervention of technology. A smartphone for example used to be a technological rarity but has evolved to become the nexus and the focal point of our personal and professional lives. Smartphones and other portable devices have today enabled us to access the internet seamlessly. This ease of accessibility however, has increased the concern regarding internet security and privacy. From identity theft to bank transaction frauds, internet has exposed us to a new set of challenges that most of us are unprepared for.
I'm guilty of not taking my internet security very seriously. In fact, only recently have I started thinking about the whole issue. I think what triggered my interest in the issue has a lot to do with the recent developments in the Google - China nexus. Exactly nine years ago Google took a very public stand against the Chinese Government that heavily censors content, news and connects people's identities with their online queries. But in 2018 Google launched Dragonfly, a search engine that is tailor-made to enable the censorship carried out by the Chinese Government, reasserting the Chinese Government's philosophy - ' if you want to do business in China, you will do it Beijing's way.' And if this wasn't scary enough, our own government recently issued an order empowering about 10 government agencies to conduct widespread monitoring of all computers in the country, all in the name of national security. I cannot help but ask the question - ' how can anything we do online be private when our own government authorizes a privacy breech of this scale? '
Although the idea of citizens, who supposedly have the 'right to privacy' , being monitored by the government doesn't sit well with me, I understand that this is not something that directly translates into a dangerous threat for most of us in our everyday lives. The internet does however expose us to a variety of privacy issues of immediate concern. Some of the issues are as follows:
Identity Theft:
Almost every website today asks its users for their names, birth-dates and E-mail addresses. All of this information is stored away in databases that can easily be hacked into by experienced hackers. This results in an inevitable identity theft. In the Indian context, this might remind you of the tragic privacy breech of the Aadhar Security Database. With the Aadhar card being made mandatory for people to access almost all government schemes in the country, government websites accidentally leaking Aadhar information is the last thing we want to hear about.
The most scary aspect of this issue is that it can happen to absolutely anybody! Most of us think we aren't important enough to hack or steal from and I'm guilty of thinking the same. But it is in fact the average citizen, who is fairly unaware and helpless, that is targeted by hackers.
Tracking:
How many of us are guilty of accepting privacy policies of apps and websites without really reading them? How many of us immediately click on "OK" when a website asks us for permission to use Cookies? These cookies store information about the activity and identity of users online and this information is used to give every user a more personalized experience. Literally all of our activities online are tracked and recorded. The Cambridge Analytica scandal shook the foundations of internet usage. The firm had access to crucial information of over 80 Million people, enough to create their psycho-graphic profiles, by merely using tracking their activity on Facebook.
Search Engines:
Well it's safe to say that Google knows more about me than most of my family and friends. From basic information, to search histories, to locations and the various devices I use to login, Google has information about everything. It's scary to say the least. This vast database is so easy to exploit for most hackers. We are carefree about our privacy matters and tend to use one password for multiple accounts and websites. Most of us don't bother to secure our tracks online, even if it's a simple two-step security system that probably takes 10 seconds more than the normal security system to function.
I think most of us are carefree about our activities online and don't bother to take extra measures to ensure our safety simply because we believe these disasters would never happen to us. It is also important to understand that people today are a lot more aware about the potential threats online and scandals such as the Cambridge Analytica case, that induced fear in a lot of people, have helped to spread awareness. Companies such as Facebook have also tightened their security systems and it's really up to us to make full and judicious use of these measures.
