As quoted by Albert Einstein, ‘All of our exalted technological progress, civilisation for that matter, is comparable to an axe in the hand of a pathological criminal’
There is no secret that advanced technologies are making our lives easier with integrated AI in the form of devices or social platforms.
However, in a study conducted by Pew Internet and American Life Project, found that adults who own tablets, laptops, and phones are comparably rising.
Personal information from your smart devices and social platforms are constantly being monitored and gathered in cyberspace. In most cases, a data breach has been an evident example of technological invasion and cyber attack.
“In the year 2018, Facebook reportedly had its 50million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica during Donald Trump’s Presidential election.”
On a wide scale, it is seen that Industrial Revolution 4.0 has predominantly affected the entire World with its latest trump Card, Artificial Intelligence, which is constantly upgrading the world and has affected the lives of people in both positive and negative ways. In present times, the lives of people without Artificial Intelligence in the first world countries have become almost impossible. However, the main area that has grabbed our attention is the intrusion done by Artificial Intelligence in the personal lives of the people.
Almost all technological inventions and innovations that are done in the present day have complete inclusion of Artificial Intelligence as the standard technology. This has increased ease of usage of the devices and has provided people with more value for money but at the stake of their privacy and personal lives. Have you ever thought about why you get advertisements for your favorite product every time you try to read the news online? Strange, isn’t it? Some people often end up believing Facebook is so special as the search option is so customized. You find the exact person whom you met a few minutes back with your friend on your Facebook Search among billions of people without much hassle.
Well, the truth is, you are regularly intruded by technologies without being least aware of being exposed invariably to the wide world out there. They know what you want, what you need, and your personal choices. Yes, you are being WATCHED!!
Negative consequences of Upcoming Technologies
Advanced technological manipulation of information has led to the integration of private information that will pose an ethical problem related to the private communication of an individual. The convergence of personal information databases is commonly known as Data banking, which can create an adverse effect on data breaches.
Data Trails
Most people are unaware that the electronic devices they use are recorded. It is in fact that devices like CCTV cameras, Portable Artificial Assistance, mobile phones are somewhere storing the data in a virtual interface. For instance, famous Artificial Assistance Alexa, a device from Amazon, is also capturing your private data and getting restored in Amazon’s database.
In any case, if Amazon’s database is targeted by an intruder, your data gets compromised. Google Pay, PayPal and many more are some of the online money transfer applications, these apps back your banking data in their data space, likewise Amazon’s data space, Google can also get hacked by unknown criminal which will result in your data breach from your bank account. Moreover, your savings can be debited at any point in time.
CCTV is getting more advanced with the influx of new software’s, though the data that is getting collected is not safe to disclose, if your CCTV is hacked, one might get to understand the daily activities of your life.
“According to Gartner, by 2022, spending on Cybersecurity is forecasted to reach around $133.7 billion.”
Anarchy of Internet
Another significant issue is the standard of behaviour and data management practices that cannot be imposed by any means of law. There is no essential assigned body to oversight the mechanism in enforcing any legal obligations that may be directed for usage.
The internet poses challenges for those who seek to apply traditional privacy principles. Social media platforms have seen a large number of data breaches in the last 5 years; Facebook, Amazon, and Whatsapp have been under scrutiny because they have been responsible for the data breaches. There is an end number of users whose data is deviated into the wrong hands; most of the applications run only if they get unlimited access to your phone’s storage, files, and location. Social media tools like SnapChat, Whatsapp, Instagram, and many more have been collecting data from your phone. These apps reduce your privacy visibility and lead to negative consequences.
“In 2017, one of America’s leading credit reporting agencies Equifax, exposed 145.5 million accounts, including date of birth, addresses, names, and license numbers of many American consumers.”
Developments of Database
New database technologies are making a possible collection of manipulation, massaging, and disposal of various qualities of information. Being personal information threatened, it controls what others know about you, and it even threatens you with various implications.
Universities, private firms have a huge archive of databases, and it is seen that there is a lot of sensitive data related to university students. The data is encrypted, having a student’s ID and PINs. The practice of these databases raised huge privacy issues because students are using university Email facilities, and this practice raises huge privacy issues. Students can fall into serious issues, such as leak of academic records, enrolment details, family information, employment status, any governmental benefits, library records, counselling fees, records of extracurricular activities, records of online access of services, personal records of employee files and academic staff.
Ending note
Your privacy is as valuable as ever, technological aspects are making a consistent value in our lives, and each individual holds a unique value of their privacy. Many companies now sell their customers private information to many survey agencies for money. These companies continue to do these unethical activities and alternatively result in user ignorance and apathy. As technology will improve in 2020, it will become more invasive; no matter how many privacy controls you take, if you use these services, you are bound to compromise with your private data. You would never be able to understand who is utilising your data, and for what purpose. Personal information has great value and it should not be given away for money.