Introduction
People have been developing an inseparable relationship with the Internet in recent years.
It is convenient for us to click the mouse or swipe the screen when surfing online to entertain ourselves or meet our work needs. No one denies that the Internet is currently one of the most valuable media in our daily life.
However, with Internet privacy information data development, online privacy infringement incidents occur virtually every minute. While social media has provided users a platform to share information and exchange ideas, it also poses a significant risk of data leakage.
According to Auxier et al. (2019), almost 70% of adults agree that their personal data is less secure. People firmly convinced that platforms would protect their personal information only account for 9% (Rainie, 2018).
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In 2007, Google launched its Street View service, a Google Maps and Google Earth feature that gives interactive panoramas from various locations worldwide. This product provides users easy access to search for and locate specific sites of interest and practically roam through the street-level environment.
Although its powerful function benefits people considerably from all walks of life, it also brings several issues of public concern, such as invasion of personal privacy.
For example, this program can record license plates, faces, and other sensitive information from a privacy standpoint while taking photographs of public locations (Frome et al., 2009). Therefore, the controversial issue regarding Google Street View allegedly violating the privacy of individuals is continuing to polarize the public debate.
The digital revolution has created a vacuum in which any personal information and data are exchanged, leaving it vulnerable to numerous threats. Nevertheless, the majority of us are unaware of how our privacy has been violated.
Privacy in the digital age
The phrase “digital age” refers to a period in human history when digital information and communication technologies have had a significant impact.
It also can be defined as a collection of technological solutions such as virtual environments, digital services, intelligent applications, machine learning, and knowledge-based systems. These technical solutions represent the specific characteristics of today’s world, such as globalization, e-communications, information sharing, and virtualization (Romansky & Noninska, 2020).
Thus, the “digital age” is also a period when digital change has progressed to a certain point, and digital technology has had a formative impact on people’s lives.
Nevertheless, the digital revolution not only has resulted in massive technological advancement but also comes with many public concerns, especially regarding online privacy and security issues.
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Privacy is a fundamental human right of worldwide relevance, as stated in various international and regional documents (Bloustein, 2017). In other words, the ability of an individual or a group of individuals to protect their private lives and environments, including personal information, is known as privacy.
However, privacy has taken on a new meaning as the digital age transitions.
The notion of privacy is applied chiefly to crucial personal information, also known as personally identifiable information, and personal health information in this digital age. Financial information, medical and health records, social security numbers, and even basic but sensitive information such as birthdates, complete names, and residences are common examples.
Privacy means ensuring the security and sustainable control of personal information for individual users. However, in the eyes of service providers, it can be considered a tremendous amount of user data and information.
How the ability to collect massive amounts of personal data and apply statistical analysis to them to exploit them for many reasons is revolutionizing economies and society in the twenty-first century (Kitchin, 2014).
As mentioned in World Economic Forum (2011), personal data can be regarded as “the new oil” — a significant resource for the twenty-first century.
How privacy is gathered in the digital age?
To enjoy Internet services more conveniently, users often need to give up some personal information. This includes both the requirements of the real-name system and the excessive demand for user information by some service providers for their own selfish interests.
It’s probably no surprise that when you first launch specific mobile applications if you don’t check the “Agree” button on the license agreement, the application will no longer work.
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The operators are given a lot of power in terms of service contracts. Suzor (2019) claims that these terms of service, especially for major corporate platforms, are drafted in a way that protects their business interests. It is difficult for users to understand these terms, which may change without the user’s notice (Flew, 2021).
According to Auxier et al. (2019), only roughly one-in-five respondents say they always (9%) or frequently (13%) read a company’s privacy policy before agreeing to it, even though 97 percent of Americans say they are ever asked to sign privacy policies.
Admittedly, these terms give users no rights except for an ultimatum. If you disagree with the rules or how they are enforced, you can always leave.
Flew (2021) states that the most notable example is the obligation to submit personal information in exchange for access to various online products and services. This industrial processing of personal information leaves users with little choice but to give up their information for use by third parties.
Causes of Privacy Leakage
In the digital age, personal information has become an essential factor of production and a primary strategic resource. Undoubtedly, information management will be a difficult task to overcome.
Pew Research Center found that nearly 28% of Americans said they had suffered at least one of three types of severe identity problems in the preceding 12 months: 21% have had someone put fraudulent charges on their credit or debit card; 8% have had their social media or email accounts hacked without their knowledge, and 6% have experienced someone attempting to start a credit line or obtain a loan in their name (Auxier et al., 2019).
In terms of the subject of privacy disclosure, there are three leading causes of privacy leakage:
One of them is the privacy breach caused by hacking.
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In November 2018, the Marriott hotel chain announced that one of its guest reservation databases had been compromised by the hack.
The records of 500 million customers of its Starwood division, including names, addresses, phone numbers, and passport numbers, have been involved in a data breach. In addition, Marriott added that this leakage also includes encrypted credit card information. The possibility of the encryption key being stolen simultaneously cannot be ruled out. Even more frightening is that the attack could have begun in 2014.
In the profit age, business organizations’ strong demand for personal data has peaked and constantly evolves. Businesses need a lot of data to survive and gain benefits in the marketplace. However, most enterprises are restricted from accessing and using data within legal rules. As a result, many companies have risk wandering into the “gray zone.”
Black market and dark web transactions have become a trend to obtain data resources, creating an impoverished market environment.
Third-party companies and organizations with large amounts of private information about their citizens are more likely to be the main targets of these black-and-white gangs. They have relatively low data security awareness and do not have adequate security procedures to defend themselves against hackers.
For example, some large companies have suffered significant losses due to inadequate information security and failure to promptly build their “firewalls,” such as the Marriott Hotel data breach. It was caused by a third-party website’s malicious intrusion because of its network technology vulnerability, which sounded an alarm for society, enterprises, and individuals.
Second is the privacy leakage caused by commercial enterprises.
Have you ever had these concerns? Just brush a short video immediately in the e-commerce platform to receive a relevant product push? How this data is captured, and our privacy is not leaked too much?
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As a component of the business community, the profitability of social network service providers has always been one of the most important goals of companies. To provide accurate marketing or a more personalized user experience, commercial interests are constantly monitoring and capturing users’ browsing history, product preferences, or online consumption in the background, using big data for personal profiling. For instance, Google can utilize a person’s browsing history to tailor a search for them based on a predictive analysis of their behavior.
However, the “network traces” of users are spread across platforms, concentrating on the “siege” of user preferences, which is suspected of excessive collection and use of “network traces.” Such a practice is an illegal plundering of the value of user information. It is also a way for platforms or related commercial companies to see the benefits of user information, which further leads to privacy leakage.
For example, Ms. Chen, a citizen of Hangzhou in China, just because she browsed a particular dating platform, then received sales messages from different dating platforms and organizations, turned into a group of platforms for precise marketing. According to past cases, many users who have left “footprints” in a lending platform will soon receive sales calls from multiple platforms, asking people to apply for loans. It can be seen that the user’s “network traces,” there is a risk that the second or even ever times to change hands and use.
Third is the privacy compromise caused by self-disclosure.
Self-disclosure is a type of communication in which one individual shares personal information with another. Thoughts, sentiments, aspirations, objectives, failures, achievements, fears, and hopes, and one’s likes, dislikes, and favorites can all be included in the information (Ignatiu & Kokkone, 2007). Social media, by their very nature, can encourage and facilitate self-disclosure.
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Firstly, the Internet gives us instant access to keep in touch with family and friends and builds an online community to develop new relationships.
What’s more, users can express their emotions on each social media in unique ways, such as emojis, face characters, and memes, breaking through the limitations of a single text.
Finally, social media exist a large amount of delayed and non-physical communication. All of these advantages make social networks promote self-disclosure.
As the developed communication technology and new media constantly change people’s lives, the Internet has become an indispensable part of modern life. Still, at the same time, the public’s awareness of personal privacy protection has not kept pace with media development.
Many users post personal information on social media despite knowing the risk of privacy breaches. This is because users lack privacy protection awareness and network security education. They often fail to accurately assess the risks, underestimate the potential for self-harm from certain information breaches, or minimize the speed and scope of information dissemination.
Conclusion
In the 21st century, the wave of big data has accelerated, and society has entered the era of explosion. The Internet has brought opportunities and more significant challenges to human society.
The application of artificial intelligence by the government can improve science, improve social governance and enhance the efficiency of public services, thus promoting the modernization of the entire national governance system and governance capacity.
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Information is the first productive force in the data era, and balancing value orientation and protecting legitimate rights and interests is a trade-off between the intersection of law and economy. The digital age is also a double-edged sword, providing convenience while also threatening people’s privacy, and privacy violations can be seen everywhere on the Internet. In the digital age, we can’t stop businesses from collecting data, so how to balance information collection and privacy protection is a problem we must consider.
Reference
Auxier, B., Rainie, L., Anderson, M., Perrin, A., Kumar, M., & Turner, E. (2019, November 15). Americans and Privacy: Concerned, Confused and Feeling Lack of Control Over Their Personal Information. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/11/15/americans-and-privacy-concerned-confused-and-feeling-lack-of-control-over-their-personal-information/
Bloustein, E. J. (2017). Individual & Group Privacy. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351319966
Flew, T. (2021). Regulating Platforms. Cambridge: Polity
Frome, A., Cheung, G., Abdulkader, A., Zennaro, M., Bo Wu, Bissacco, A., Adam, H., Neven, H., & Vincent, L. (2009). Large-scale privacy protection in Google Street View. 2009 IEEE 12th International Conference on Computer Vision, 2373–2380. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCV.2009.5459413
Ignatius, E. & Kokkonen, M. (2007). Factors contributing to verbal self-disclosure. Nordic Psychology, 59 (4), 362-391.
Kitchin, R. (2014). The Data Revolution: Big Data, Open Data, Data Infrastructures and Their Consequences. SAGE.
Rainie, L. (n.d.). Americans’ complicated feelings about social media in an era of privacy concerns. Pew Research Center. Retrieved April 8, 2022, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/27/americans-complicated-feelings-about-social-media-in-an-era-of-privacy-concerns/
Romansky, R. P., & Noninska, I. S. (2020). Challenges of the digital age for privacy and personal data protection. Mathematical Biosciences and Engineering : MBE, 17(5), 5288–5303. https://doi.org/10.3934/mbe.2020286
Suzor, N. P. (2019). Lawless: The Secret Rules That Govern Our Digital Lives. Cambridge University Press.
World Economic Forum. (2011). Personal Data: The Emergence of a New Asset Class. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/reports/personal-data-emergence-new-asset-class/
