How the digital age is threatening our privacy
By: Limi Yanxuan Zeng
INTRODUCTION
The advancing technology has improved our ways of living. The online shopping, banking, healthcare, and virtual learning are all benefits of advancing technology and innovation in new devices. The internet has also played an instrumental role in advancing the digital age by making it easier to utilize different advanced technologies. The social media use has been a significant tool of engaging with peers, accessing new, and socializing especially during the pandemic. The marketing companies have also discovered the potential of the social media sector. All these new opportunities created by the advancing technology in a digital age poses significant challenges especially on increasing privacy concerns. For instance, cases of personal data being used without the consent or approval of the users have been evident involving a number of companies such as Facebook Inc. which is currently known as Meta. Thus, the increased dependence on the digital age for ease of transacting, learning, exercising, accessing healthcare, and shopping has created a significant challenge that warrants attention and need for user to gain awareness on dangers behind exposure to threats of privacy where the data is used without their consent.
The blog will examine the threats of our privacy during the digital age. It acknowledges the digtal technologies as powerful tool used in advancing the human progress. However, with the advancing digital technologies that are data-intensive including the use of artificial intelligence applications, there have been enabled the business enterprises and governments to analyze, track, predict, and also manipulate the behaviors of people. Flew (2021) noted there is growing challenge where the consumers concern that they have lost control of the ways personal information is gathered or collected and also used by the companies. In order to examine these threats and privacy concerns, the blog will highlight the privacy, information security, personal data protection (PDP), and the challenges behind digital privacy and the data protection, and ways to limit these negative limitations behind threats of privacy in the digital age.
Privacy
The main challenge behind the growing concerns of privacy is the loss of the personal privacy online. According to Flew (2021) the data done by Pew Research Center that involve a survey Americans on the attitudes towards the online environment demonstrated that in 2018, 91% of the adults interviewed strongly agreed or agreed that the consumers have lost the control on ways their personal information is both collected and also used by the companies with only around 9% of these respondents noting that they were very confident on social media companies being able to protect their data. These figures illustrating that privacy is an ongoing concern negatively impacting the confidence of users.
There has been an increase in the privacy issues especially among almost all the digital companies with Facebook’s Cambridge Analytical data scandal where the company shared more than 8 million users personal profile data and information to the third-party app developer warranting media attention (Flew, 2021). These concern are also shared by Akanfe et al. (2020) noting that with increasing complexity attributed to the digital age, there are risks such as privacy through companies accessing personal data of users without their consent.
It is important that the people understand that right the right to privacy is an inherent human right. As noted by Flew (2021) it is a right to be left alone and also “ability to protect oneself from unwanted access by others, the right to secrecy, control over personal information, protection of one’s personality individuality, and dignity, and control over one’s intimate relationship or over aspects of one’s life” (Flew, 2021). These insights demonstrate the growing need for right of privacy as an instrumental guarantor of the liberty of conscience, physical security, and the control over the personal space or sexual orientation or the one’s medical condition (Flew, 2021).
The growth in the use of Internet has generated privacy issues. The internet environment has gained massive volume of information generated by users hence generating key privacy issues. Flew (2021) noted that the increased data generated in the internet environment generates concerns on trade-offs between the privacy rights and the access to the free online services. Minkkinen et al. (2017) noted that privacy continues to emerge as the pressing issues in the digital age especially based on the surveillance and new technologies. Thus, growth in the social media use has increased the debate on the privacy concerns including the dynamics behind the new and rapidly emerging technologies. Users mandate and role in safeguarding their privacy and that of the government are all critical. The social media companies or the digital technology companies have a role in safeguarding the privacy of users, however the private motives of these companies are one of the major limiting factor.
Information Security
The information security is defined by Romansky & Noninska (2020) as the state of protection in the information resources based on different form of data that are processes, stored or transmitted using the computer networks and systems. It is important that data is protected from both the internal and the external actions resulting to the disturbance of diverse system functions such as unauthorized and unauthenticated access (Romansky & Noninska, 2020). The realization of the needed protection is based on utilizing special means and tools such as the use of software and hardware.
The privacy concerns emerge due to information insecurity. According to Romansky & Noninska (2020) the information insecurity based on insights by the European Commission is the protection of information and diverse networks or systems against the natural disaster, the human error, malicious attacks, or technical malfunctions and include all the information and communication technologies (ICT) and the expansive IT-services across the digital age. Nimrod (2018) the information insecurity generates threats and other challenges on users including invasion and privacy resulting to techno stress. Romansky & Noninska (2020) noted that there are two core components of the vast information security including IT components and Organizational Components.
IT components: As the information insecurity encompasses the application security that includes protecting against theft, threats, deletion, or the modification of the applications (Romansky & Noninska, 2020). It also involves network security and the mobile security plus the internet security. The internet security as noted by Romansky & Noninska (2020) involves protection of the software applications, the phishing attacks, the DDoS (denial of service attacks), and the web browsers attack.
Organizational components: It focuses on the physical security on the protecting of the physical data systems and resource such as the networks and hardware (Romansky & Noninska, 2020). It also focuses on security on the access control, efforts to limit copying of the data to the other devices plus protection against flood, fire, and the terrorist attacks plus the security processes (Romansky & Noninska, 2020).
Personal Data Protection (PDP)
PDP focuses on the relations that exists between the society and persons as conveyed by the wide range of subjects and the authorities including the institutions, state, government, and the public and private organization. It is through PDP that it is demonstrated how processing of the personal data involves use of strong policies and rules regarding the data protection plus ensuring privacy of respective data subject (Romansky & Noninska, 2020). It is these dynamics that has seen the development of the Data Protection Policy which a key aspect of the Information Security Policy and the wider Security Policy is as demonstrated in the figure 1 below from insights by Romansky & Noninska (2020).
Figure 1: Development of Data Protection Policy under the Digital Age (Romansky & Noninska, 2020).
There is concern on how the users reveal their personal information. According to Kokolakis (2017) one of the fundamental concern on the personal data protection is based on how the individuals are able to reveal their personal information for significantly low rewards especially based on how they generate attention of the peers in relation to online social networks. Thus, the practice of revealing personal information by most of the social media users is characterized by their observation from their peers using these media platforms. The ideas by Kokolakis (2017) noted that there are privacy paradox including major implications for the online social networking, e-government, and the e-commerce plus the government privacy regulations.
Therefore, it is important for users to evaluate their social media practices to avoid exposing their information to the other users which could result to attacks and other malicious activities. It is also clear that these practices of the information disclosure and wider information control in the online social networks is essential (Kokolakis, 2017). The growing demand and need for users to be popular or popularity is a major reason behind why many of the young people are disclosing their personal information increases access to the personal profiles which is a threat (Kokolakis, 2017). Such concerns are also shared by Flew (2021) on the personal privacy differentiated based on the privacy unconcerned customers, privacy pragmatists, and the privacy fundamentalists. These are clear differentiations on the response of the consumer to the challenges of privacy.
The methods for Protection
There are significant steps that users can engage in enhancing personal data protection. As summarized in the figure 2 below that is drawn from Romansky & Noninska (2020) include use of methods such as blocking, identification, control, access management, encryption, and sanctions. Each of these steps are critical for users in different contexts. For example, blocking is the method that aims at preventing the unauthorizes users from accessing rooms where the data is stored (Romansky & Noninska, 2020). On the other hand, access management offers secure use of the massive or all information resources by utilizing systems that aim at offering verification on access rights and preliminary users defined (Romansky & Noninska, 2020). The use of encryption is where the cryptographic algorithms are used in encrypting data in ensuring data and information cannot be comprehended by an illegitimate user (Romansky & Noninska, 2020). Each of these methods are instrumental for the protection and safeguarding the privacy of users. Belanger & Crossler (2011) users have a fundamental role to safeguard their privacy by using different mechanisms and methods and limit possible attacks or violations on their privacy.
Figure 2: Means and methods for the Personal Data Security System (PDSS) (Romansky & Noninska, 2020).
Limiting these negative impacts
As demonstrated in the analysis above, there are different opportunities attained in the digital age. The digital age accords both opportunities and challenges to the users. There are key dynamics that could be used in solving the challenges in the daily lives of the people. However, there are also negative and the disadvantages on the users of the wide range of the e-services. Thus, there are different forms of approaches and opportunities that users can enact to limit these negative effect behind digital technologies based on the user’s data protection and privacy.
Using Social Computing (SoC): According to Romansky & Noninska (2020) SoC has gained popularity as it facilitates limiting overall ability in regulating activities and ensure that the consumer privacy is protected. It dictates that the specific user of the social media is the holder or owner of the personal data and embraces the respective or the corresponding responsibilities.
Cloud Computing (CC): It does have some key concerns among the cloud service users such as whether there are possible vulnerable attacks that could be beyond the user’s internal protection, whether there are adequate data security measures used in the cloud, and if the personal privacy is based on regulations that are followed (Romansky & Noninska, 2020). However, there are core elements that the makes cloud computing safe as it is based on organizing data into complex systems of the information security using special functionality on the personal data protection (Romansky & Noninska, 2020).
Internet of Things (IoT): It is also an approach that the users can utilize to minimize these negative impact of privacy threats. It is information security that effectively integrates the core elements of security of the devices, interfaces, network connections, software, USB ports, mobile applications, and cloud (Romansky & Noninska, 2020). The basic requirements of the IoT are critical in enhancing security such as connectivity between respective things realized based on identification and interoperability between these connected subsystems being ensured.
Sources
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Flew, Terry (2021) Regulating Platforms. Cambridge: Polity, pp. 72-96.
Kokolakis, S. (2017). Privacy attitudes and privacy behaviour: A review of current research on the privacy paradox phenomenon. Computers & security, 64, 122-134.
Minkkinen, M., Auffermann, B., & Heinonen, S. (2017). Framing the future of privacy: citizens’ metaphors for privacy in the coming digital society. European Journal of Futures Research, 5(1), 1-13.
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