By Geeta Spolia
The telegram is dead and the virtual age is upon us. Is online privacy an antediluvian relic of a world gone by that has no place in the highly integrated and technologically advanced age that we live in? Can people logically expect to maintain an impenetrable boundary around information they consider private and confidential, that precludes scrutiny not authorized by them? Can multinational corporations collect and misuse user data?
Former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, on whether he believed people should trust Google as they would a good friend in sharing their information, said that if we don’t want anyone to know what we do, we shouldn’t be doing it in the first place. Does such a view from the worlds largest online search engine, whose guiding motto incidentally is Dont Be Evil, signal the end of online privacy as we know it?
Who you email, what youre interested in, what youre talking about, and where youve been; in other words, the sum of human communication today is what companies have easy access to, if they want it. And this is just one example of how a third party becomes privy to some of the most internal information and exchanges of our lives, simply because most of us today are users of the world wide web. More and more, people are relying almost wholly on the internet to communicate with people, domestically and overseas. People are sharing online like never before and volunteering critical information about themselves.
Why then, is online privacy such a big deal? What do a few pictures, or a few tweets or check-ins really mean? The answer lies in the fact that it is possible to draw an entire profile of a person based entirely on their Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Reddit and Instagram accounts, from among various other online fora.
Personal and professional details including political preferences- who youre seeing, who you vote for, how much you earn, can all be traced through the activity you post online. Anything once shared virtually, is going to be out there for a long, nearly indefinite, period of time. This is important, for instance, because often these are sources for third parties such as employers to obtain crucial knowledge about their employees. Advertisers use this information to target their audiences via channels created with the help of such revealed preferences. There can be numerous other ways in which such critical information can also be put to misuse; identity theft, the sale of credit card information and virtual harassment being some of the many.
This is also why it becomes necessary to have a clearly defined space in which the terms of collection and use of data by corporation giants are specified and narrowly delineated.
People need to be aware of these terms and conditions, and conduct themselves responsibly online, but at the same must also be fully familiar with their rights and the legal framework within such activity operates. Thinking about privacy and security in the virtual world in a systematic way becomes important, because several times we dont realize the violations we as users face, until the violation becomes apparent and inconvenient.
The amazing, near infinite space that forms the internet does offer a convenient veil of anonymity, but at the same time denies its users security and privacy in unfathomable ways. The best way to make use of the gift of the World Wide Web is to be informed and to exercise caution while using it.