Skip to main content

Surrendering Our Privacy

There is a plethora of privacy concerns the public has in regards to technology. Companies and government agencies can track our digital footprints, accomplishing everything from exploiting our shopping habits for profit to surveilling our contacts for national security threats. Even more concerning, criminals can use technology to hack data and steal identities, causing harm to both the individual victims as well as to the organizations that suffer the cyber attack. To combat this threat, an entire industry of cybersecurity has developed. These security companies promise to keep private data secure from bad actors, but the majority of our private data is actually used with our consent. 

While most people are aware of the risks that come with using digital communications, we generally accept them as the cost of using modern technology. There is, however, a number of Americans who are ignorant of the privacy risks of internet usage, and an effort is underway to encourage "digital literacy" for those individuals who do not know how to spot nefarious attempts to access private data (Bergström, 2015). But even innocuous information like where we shop and who we spend time with is used to comprise a profile that major corporations like Amazon, Marriott, and Starbucks utilize in order to better market to consumers in the pursuit of higher profits. We may not like the idea of being spied on and analyzed by companies to improve their advertising, but for many, the convenience of online shopping and enjoyment of social media outweigh the drawbacks of big data.



References:

Bergström, A. (2015, July 23). Online privacy concerns: A broad approach to understanding the concerns of different groups for different uses. Computers in Human Behavior, 53, 419-426. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2015.07.025

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Journalism, Activism, and the Digital Age

Digital communication technology, particularly blogs and social media, have provided a platform for average, everyday individuals to share their stories or advocate for causes. Before the advent of the internet, activists were only able to share their messages with national audiences when they received attention from the traditional media (Häussler, 2021). Now, anyone with a Twitter account can use it as a virtual megaphone to blast their thoughts and opinions on any subject. While this can be beneficial to the flow of information among citizens, it brings a variety of issues professional journalists must tackle. One benefit to the accessibility of online journalism is the opportunity for activists and community organizers to utilize digital communications to push for societal change. The civil rights movement, women’s suffrage, and LGTBQ pride all achieved great strides for human rights thanks to organizers and activists. Today’s generation marching for climate action, gun control, an...
Post a Comment
Read more

Digital Technology Improvement Plan

The many benefits of modern digital communications are undeniable: connection to family, opportunity to meet new friends, visibility for businesses, and access to the collection of human knowledge, to name a few. With these advantages, however, come limitations that create problems for society. Some of the most prevalent challenges include big data and cybersecurity, the spread of misinformation, and unrealistic expectations caused by social media. There are concrete steps that both individuals and institutions can take to improve these limitations. Big data is typically used by corporations to learn more about consumers in order to turn larger profits while cybersecurity threats are often carried out by bad actors attempting to access and steal private information. Individuals can be safer by educating themselves about how they are tracked and how their data is used by companies. Then they can make choices that protect their information like deleting browser cookies and restricting...
Post a Comment
Read more