Why your online privacy matters
Privacy is closing your bedroom curtains when getting ready for bed. Privacy is visiting with your doctor behind closed doors. While in real life this type of privacy comes naturally, with little thought, in the digital space the idea of privacy is skewed. Mostly because people don’t really understand what digital privacy entails.
What Exactly Are We Trying to Protect?
People may assume it is all about what they are doing, which is a small piece of the picture. However, online privacy has less to do with what you are doing, and more to do with who you are AND what you are doing. On the Internet, data has high value. It’s stolen, sold, collected and analyzed.
There are many facets to privacy. There’s what you do, and who you are. Who you are is your personally identifiable information (PII), which is as it sounds--your name, date of birth, address, Social Security number, phone numbers and more. What you do are the searches you perform, the websites you visit, the articles you read, even what you buy online.
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Whenever you download an app, visit a website or use a social media platform, chances are that company is collecting data on you. People are doing so much more online through their computers and mobile devices today. We make purchases, look up medical conditions, arrange vacations, interact with friends and relatives, just about anything imaginable. With these actions, people are inadvertently creating a huge digital paper trail of data about themselves. While it may not be PII, these companies still track what you do on the Web and collect that data in order to get a clearer picture of you.
What Can Be Done With My Data?
A complete data set on an individual can fetch a pretty penny, completely legally, too. There are now companies known as “data brokers” that collect and maintain data on millions of people, which they analyze, package, and sell without the user’s knowledge or permission. Data brokers collect and sell information to other companies for many reasons, including targeted advertising, credit risk assessment, and direct marketing. Luckily, this data is usually anonymized, and does not contain PII.
Why Is Privacy Important?
We all have things to hide. It could be how much money you make, your medical records or your bank account number. Hiding things is not bad. I don’t think these are the types of things you’d like broadcasted on your social network for the entire world to see. This is why we must strive to protect our right to privacy.
Earlier this year, a young woman purchased a few nondescript items such as cotton balls, unscented lotion and some vitamins. Based on what the company already knew about her, they were able to correctly predict that she was pregnant, and began targeting her for baby items by sending her coupons in the mail. The issue? She was a teenage girl, and these coupons alerted her father (much to his dismay) that she was indeed pregnant.
The most important thing to remember about your privacy is that it is YOURS. It is your information, your habits and patterns, and your actions. Therefore you should want to protect it in any way possible.
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