As our lives depend more and more on digital technology, digital privacy and security have increased in importance. General awareness about these topics may have been lacking, especially when it comes to privacy. The ad-based internet is at its most profitable (or least lossy) when it can accurately assess individual interests.
Let's first start with security, though. Digital security is, loosely speaking, about hacking. Some examples of security violations are:
- Unintentionally downloading malware: you search for VLC media player on Google, download it from an ad result, and it installs a keylogger on your system as well
- Phishing: you enter your Discord credentials into a login page, but it is actually a lookalike website and not the official one
- Physical access to device: a man in a mechanized bird suit breaks into your Project Insight Helicarrier and swaps out an SD card in the targeting module
- Backdoors: the phone you bought actually has spyware on it, because it was secretly developed and distributed by the CIA to spy on criminals
- WiFi eavesdropping: communications between a device and the wifi router are not encrypted, and a device on the same wifi network can intercept and eavesdrop on the data or even tamper with it
- Other vulnerabilities: software developers and hackers are in a race to continuously outdo each other, and this is why keeping up-to-date with security updates is recommended
Privacy, on the other hand, is kinda about nosiness. Your privacy can be invaded in the following cases:
- Me finding out someone's name by listening in to their conversations, looking them up on Facebook, and finding out their home address which they've made public (I've never done this, I promise)
- Me going another step further and keeping tabs on their location by following the stories on their linked public Instagram account to which they post live updates (I have never considered doing this, I promise)
- Me keeping a track of all the browser and OS details of every user that views this blog (I'm not doing this, I promise)
- Me adding an invisible youtube widget on this page to track the Google accounts of every user that visits this blog (I'm not doing this with any sort of tracker on any website I've made, I promise)
Ad platforms and content recommendation engines (which is to say, nearly every popular app) benefit from identifying details about you and serving you ads/content based on that. While you do get more relevant results, they may end up identifying things about you that you are not aware of. This sounds super futuristic, but it raises the question of what these platforms can do with this information.
The Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal was a series of events in the 2010s where personal data of Facebook users was collected by Cambridge Analytica and was predominantly used for pollitical advertising. Imagine the power to shape public opinion one can hold. Elections can be manipulated by the highest bidder. Critical voices can be drowned out by amplification of propaganda. Conspiracy theories can be pushed via selective reporting.
Conspiracy theories brings me to a related danger of algorithmic content. It has been observed that YouTube, if allowed to autoplay videos, will gradually go from videos showing moderate ideas to videos showing extremist ideas. Rage-bait gets clicks, and one could get radicalized by simply following the recommended videos for a few months.
Even if you trust a company to be respectful with your data, there is no telling when that trust may be broken. Maybe an employee decides to abuse privilege and spy on a customer that they know personally. Or the employee may be bribed. Or hacked. Or the entire company may get bought out by another company that has no interest in careful handling of personal data.
This is why you may want to pay attention to your digital privacy.