With the technological revolution, the definition of privacy has changed completely. It’s no longer a right but has become a privilege not everyone can enjoy. Many people argue that “Why are you scared when you have nothing to hide?” But I believe it is not about wanting to hide stuff, it’s about having control over how much you are willing to share.
The tech giants and other organizations track our digital footprint to pinpoint ads and content based on our preferences and our personality. A digital footprint is the tiny bit of information we leave behind when we are online, watching a video, reading an article or just randomly scrolling. For instance, Instagram traces our digital footprint by tracking the amount of time we stay on a reel or what we like and share.
Although it doesn’t seem too bad when we are getting personalized ads and content made for someone like us. But what’s alarming is, we don’t know the limit. Google maps tracks our location and stores it in its memory, it can also precisely predict what kind of vehicle we are riding on. The dangers come in when someone breaks into google’s system, knows our realtime location, what places we visit and how often.
There have been many cases on people like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg with proof that the chats and calls are not end-to-end encrypted as it says on the application and they have been found guilty but still nothing has been done about it and no-one seems to care anymore. Most people have accepted this and continue using social media.
In many countries, there are surveillance cameras installed on the streets and civilian areas by the government who claim that they are for the safety and security of the citizens but it has been proven time and time again that they are installed in order to keep an eye on civilians and note any suspicious activity. Constantly being watched snatches away the freedom of the people.
It has also been proved that our smartphones and other devices with a microphone listen to our everyday conversations all the time and use that information to learn about our likes and dislikes and every other thing about us. While devices with cameras constantly record us and the footages are used but we don’t even know who.
Now for the solution, I can not recommend you to stay away from smart devices completely because I believe in doing so, we will be wasting away all the efforts done by our ancestors in the advancement of technology and humans as a species. But what I can recommend to you is to cover the cameras on all the devices you own while you’re not using it, and try to minimize your screen time. Because I am pretty sure our ancestors didn’t struggle in the name of science so that we would scroll life away.
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