Data Privacy And How It Affects You

Elon Musk has single handedly renewed hope for many in terms of the planet’s future. So, when faced with a taunt by a random Twitter follower, of having a Facebook page and profile in the wakes of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Elon did what could only be expected from him. He commented that he would delete the said pages. And delete the pages he did.

While there has been much backlash faced by Facebook over the whole data leak scandal, but there’s a flip side to this story that is not known by many as Facebook isn’t the only one interested in selling user data for profit. To make matters worse, these other companies have also accepted that such data breaches are a way of life!

Digital Identity Privacy Is A Human Right: A Lost Cause?

Every time one logs on to a social media site, they do so with their digital identity that portrays a picture very unlike their real self. For them, every like, comment and sharing of location is a means of establishing that they are living the good life. In such scenarios, the very concept of deleting one of the most famous social media portals is almost unimaginable to them.

But, as the media backlash and the number of people boycotting all social media platforms increased, these select few gave a reaction that can only be described as quintessentially ‘human’. They asked, what is the big deal? So what, if they used the data to manipulate the ads? So what, if they used my data to create an algorithm that served their purpose. After all, any data that is posted online is bound to be shared beyond control.

This scandalizing (for us) school of thinking is not the norm, but is harmful to others. Organizations and tech departments, government agencies, consumer protection groups and everyday users of social media portals are trying their level best to increase awareness about the protection of one’s digital identity.

The ignorance surrounding the same needs to be broken down to the core. Every consumer needs to understand the impact of data protection act. And it can only be done via the understanding of the difference in the 3 most important sectors of Data.

 1. Data Privacy: What is Data Privacy? Simply put, it is the complete control about how much of personal information one is allowing to be shared. With known followers or out in the open maze of internet one needs to have complete control of their information. Bridging the gap of transactions in a technological world is not easy. There are many places one needs to compromise one’s ethics only so that one has the access of depositing online money or booking a flight without having the hassle of going all the way to an agent or at the airport to buy a ticket. Technology has made our life easier but it has come at the cost of making us vulnerable to the compromise of our privacy. If only our corporations could understand one simple thing. Ethical business practices are good businesses.

2. Data Security: Big Data is increasing in capacity every single day. As it does so, more and more interconnected devices become vulnerable to security breaches. The solution to this problem is an interconnected infinite loop. To stop any type of data security breaches one needs to hire more data security professionals who can detect threat and even prevent it by further analyzing the data.

3. Data Discrimination: Remember that seemingly fake life one depicts on the Social Media? It’s subconsciously teaching you how to be bias or discriminate against individuals. Unfortunately, this biased judgement is not restricted to just us. Corporates to whom we apply for loans or for aid, have begun to discreetly study the applicants’ social media pages apart from the bank balance to determine their eligibility. In fact, if reports are to be believed, the US government has issued a dictate with which any person who applies for a citizenship, their social media profiles of the last 5 years shall be reviewed. Ouch!

We hope that this article helps the still-ignorant community to understand why data protection act is important. Data protection principles and policies are useful and should be implemented soon with strict government regulations. Moreover, the above-explained aspects of data should be included in data protection exercises.