INTRODUCTION
Protecting Privacy is a losing game nowadays. Information about individuals is being generated faster and faster from more and more digital platforms, social media sites on the Internet and smartphones than ever. The dark side of Information generation and use of the internet is that we as an individual and that are the power of the Internet which is eroding our privacy. More than our friends and families Google knows what we are looking for and Facebook knows what we like. But the question is, “Is that safe?” our legal system, both are losing the game. We as a society always forget that “Internet never forgets.”
1.1: POWER OF THE INTERNET AND OTHER MEDIA TO ELIMINATE PERSONAL PRIVACY
He has a name, but most of the people know him as “The dance master.” An 18-year-old street dancer with life being hard on him every day eventually becomes famous. A tourist group on the street of New York captures the performance video of the then infamous street kid living in slums for $1 and uploads it on Facebook and YouTube. The video has received more than 1 million likes in one day. And the street kid turns out to be the new sensation of the young generation. With people and agencies approaching him for collaborations, that kid got a new life. That is the unmatchable power of the internet.
With over hundreds of researches, the Internet is proving to be the most powerful source for transforming people’s life and connecting individuals globally. Social media sites now being used even by a 5-year kid allow the distribution of hot news, gossip, and rumors to a worldwide audience. Meanwhile, the Internet is also the main cause of erosion of Personal Privacy which is the biggest concern of the general public nowadays (Shaw).
It has been identified in Article on BBC that when Equifax which is a credit rating agency was hacked then there were about 145 million Americans who were a victim, so this was the reason that it was considered one of the biggest data breaches in history. In that case, credit card numbers, driver’s license, telephone numbers, birth dates, and even social security numbers were exposed due to which people felt vulnerable to identify the fraud and theft. Therefore, people get convenience at a greater amount through internet, but the key thing is that why personal privacy is compromised?
The past few years have brought a volley of news about the extent to which people are being monitored. WikiLeaks, the phone hacking scandal, the Snowden files are all such examples. With a lot of research going on how the Internet is contributing towards the End of Personal Privacy; it could easily be concluded that this breach of privacy is going to take an exponential growth in coming years. The technologies that 50 years ago people could only dream of in science fiction novels and movies, have actually been created with so much faith and greater good in their power to unite and connect people, have been instead used as tools for spying, behavioral manipulation, activism and addiction (Sutter).
1.2: WHO IS INVADING OUR PRIVACY? CORPORATIONS, GOVERNMENTS, OTHER PEOPLE OR OURSELVES
In this era of technology, there are many things that invade our privacy. But the main source of invasion of privacy is human being himself. We invade our privacy ourselves more than others. The biggest source of our privacy invasion is social media. We share almost everything on social media. From where we are going to what kind of food we like to eat; we share on social media. And this sharing does invade one’s privacy in a way that most of the time, people don’t even realize about that.
While using social media, most of the time we think that we are sharing our posts/tweets/stories with our friends or followers, but actually, we are sharing our data with third parties as well. For example, when we install any social media application in our cell phones, 99 percent of the time we have to give that application certain “permissions” to run that application. Or in other words, we have to agree to certain terms and conditions. And by giving permission we allow our application to access our data such as messages or photos etc. (Magid).
Cloud technology is considered as another example of breaching the privacy of users, and it is observed that cloud technology is a very important tool for companies, users and organizations because cloud technology has thrived tremendously over the last decade. Remote resources are stored, and data’s virtual accessibility are important aspects for which cloud computing is used. Fluctuation of workload support is carried out by companies with the use of cloud computing. In the context of considering the iCloud, it is noted that unless users turn off manually, the images are automatically uploaded by Apple phones to their iCloud server. It is an important example in respect of which the output option is used by the users instead of an opt-in option.
According to a study conducted by the Non-profit organization, 33% of the younger generation has grown up entirely in the digital age. That means they prioritize communicating through smart phones, specifically through social media applications, over real-life interactions. To conclude, among different sources of privacy invasion, we human being is the biggest source of this because of unnecessary use of technology and unawareness that lead us to our serious privacy invasion (Watson)
1.3: THE EU RULES TO PROTECT PERSONAL PRIVACY AS COMPARED TO THE USA RULES AND HOW IT IS IMPACTING COMPANIES LIKE GOOGLE AND FACEBOOK
The European Union has strict rules for protecting personal privacy when compared to the US where most of the tech companies have taken birth. The most renowned regulation regarding the protection of the privacy of individuals and the protection of data in the EU is the General Data Protection Regulation. Unless most of the American laws, GDPR, make sure that what type of personal information of individuals is being exported outside the EU. It is the universal set of data protection rules and regulations for all the companies operating in the EU, and they are bound to follow them so that none of them gets any favor. Unlike American laws, EU data protection and privacy laws give people more control over their data. With a little reform recently done in GDPR, companies are now bound to collect personal data of individuals and customers with prior consent. This personal information doesn’t only include attributes like age, religion, and name but also an individual’s browsing history, social security number, license information, email address, cookies, and online contacts. US rules of personal privacy, however, are not narrowly defined due which people are confused about what actions could be tagged as a breach of privacy and what are in adherence to the law (Kerry).
The GDPR would offer a way forward for consumers to control their information. For example, under GDPR, a location finder app could require the consent of an individual to access his or her location before providing the driving directions. But it could not require an individual to allow access to the gallery, messages, contacts list, because that’s not needed to provide the requested directions.
Google, Facebook, and other multinational technology companies have a very large market in the European Union. People in the EU tend to rely on such technological website heavily, but for them, Privacy is also their main concern. Companies like Facebook and Google would have to become more active to make sure that none of their user’s privacy is breached otherwise that is going to put their reputation and business on a stake. Due to such laws, technological companies are becoming more proactive by introducing new privacy updates now and then so that they don’t have to face a blame game later on. They are facing a lot of pressure from privacy and data protection regulatory agencies for the heavy use of the data of their users, and things are taking a new turn (BBC News).
1.4: MOST ENDANGERED TYPES OF PRIVACY AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT
As the ever-developing technologies have now become an essential part of our lives helping and easing our lives to a great degree, so were many threats born against the human society in many forms from which the greatest is that of “privacy.” If this era can be called “an era of development,” then it won’t be wrong to say it “The era of the end of privacy.” There are many types of endangered privacy ranging from the privacy of the person, social privacy, communication privacy, the privacy of behavior and action, etc.
Every human being must be aware of the fact of keeping his body characteristics and functions private, which may include biometric to voice characteristics and even genetic codes, as these are said to be the identity of a person, however, now it won’t be wrong to say that technology has even invaded our own body’s privacy. Then comes behavioral privacy as every person is different, even those twins who are born with the same physical features are observed to have different personalities (Burt and Geer). Where personality is nothing but the behavior and actions of different individuals, but in this era, even our actions are being recorded, which can then later be used to not only predict our future actions and moves but could even be used to predict our inner thoughts. Then comes the communication privacy, which is the most common and dangerous one, from messages to calls, emails with video calls, everything has a high risk of being read by the third party for whom it wasn’t even intended. It won’t be wrong to say that a human digs his own grave in case of social privacy, as here the user himself is in control of ending his privacy by himself posting his/her photos, videos to sharing moods to life events. Social sites ranging from Twitter, Facebook, Instagram to Snapchat is all simply used for socializing, and the most shocking news is each one of them entertains more than a billion users, and these Networking websites can even say to be the foundation for the era of the end of privacy.
The only antidote to keep yourself safe from this end of privacy era is to cut all your technological connections and isolate yourself in a jungle. But wait no! Even then it won’t be of any use as now there are even satellites which can not only monitor the earth’s surface, but even the living and non-living things in it with very high-resolution imagery. So, in a nutshell, no there is no solution (Anderson and Rainie).
CONCLUSION
In the end, it can be concluded that in today’s globalized world with minimal barriers for the exchange of information and low cost of communication, people tend to share more information about themselves on different digital platforms and media including Facebook, Twitter, and other social accounts. Meanwhile, companies are keen to gather information about customers to remain competitive which sometimes comes under the umbrella of stealing information willingly which is unethical. This combined action of both the parties involved in information sharing and stealing is leading towards the End of Privacy. In this digital age of mass media and social networking, privacy and publicity cannot die, but technology is playing a vital role to create a mess of both, and it will continue to do so with a higher pace in future.
Work Cited
Anderson, Janna and Lee Rainie. “The Future of Well-Being in a Tech-Saturated World.” Pew Internet.Org. Pew Internet.Org, 17 April 2018. Web. 5 November 2018. http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/04/17/the-future-of-well-being-in-a-tech-saturated-world/.
BBC News. “Technology.” BBC. BBC, 6 October 2017. Web. 5 November 2018. https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41483723.
Burt, Andrew and Dan Geer. “The End of Privacy.” New York Times. New York Times, 5 October 2017. Web. 5 November 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/05/opinion
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Kerry, Cameron F. “Why protecting privacy is a losing game today—and how to change the game. “ Brookings.Edu. Brookings.Edu, 22 July 2018. Web. 5 November 2018. https://www.brookings.edu/research/why-protecting-privacy-is-a-losing-game-today-and-how-to-change-the-game/.
Magid, Larry. “Protecting Your Privacy From Corporations, The Government And You.” Forbes. Forbes, 31 December 2013. Web. 5 November 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/larrymagid/2013
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Shaw, Jonathan. “The erosion of privacy in the Internet era.” Harvard Magazine. Harvard Magazine, 20 October 2009. Web. 5 November 2018. https://harvardmagazine.com/2009/09/privacy-erosion-in-internet-era.
Sutter, John D. “The Internet and the ‘end of privacy’.” CNN. CNN, 13 December 2010. Web. 5 November 2018. http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/12/13
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Watson, Patrick W. “This Is The End Of Privacy As We Know It.” Forbes. Forbes, 26 April 2018. Web. 5 November 2018. https://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickwwatson
/2018/04/26/this-is-the-end-of-privacy-as-we-know-it/#3d5d88836875.
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