CONCERNS REGARDING USAGE OF PERSONAL DATA ARE RISING WORLDWIDE. HERE'S WHY THEY MATTER.
Without beating around the bush & cutting straight to the chase, here are the major tech giants & the information they know about you:
If I say Google is not a tech company but rather an advertising agency, you would laugh at me right? Have a look at this:
The Balance Sheet above shows advertising is 87.5% & 86.66% of its total revenue (gross) as of 2017 & 2018 respectively. Shocking isn't it?
So why does Google earn so much through ads?
Its because it knows stuff about you like:
Places you frequent the most. (Google maps)
Faces of friends & family (Google Photos)
Favorite sports team, genre of music & movies & other personal preferences (Google Search)
Type of videos you like (YouTube)
Personal health & sleep time (fitbit)
Details of monetary transactions (Google Pay)
Next it generates ads according to recent search data & other related info available about you. For example, if you search too much about prospective colleges or universities, it will show you ads regarding the same.
Over the years, Google has acquired several internet advert companies for millions of dollars like dMarc Broadcasting, Invite Media, Autofuss, Adometry & Red Hot Labs. This has all been merged with Adsense who has become the industry pioneer.
Powered by tons of data & cutting edge technology, Google has emerged as a major player in the advertisement market.
You must be wondering what Google is doing is unethical right? Well wait till you find out about FB's deeds.
So what Facebook did was that it sold user data to Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm that combined misappropriation of digital assets, data mining, data brokerage, and data analysis with strategic communication during electoral processes. So it tried to swing elections in a particular party's favor in the UK. This has been proved as well.
It just shows how companies with too much data are dangerous. Facebook can use this same data in many other ways like
selling data about shopping preferences to e-commerce sites like Amazon
acting as a watchdog for an authoritative government like in China & Saudi Arabia by tracking dissent.
selling data to facial recognition agencies who in turn can be used by the government as well as criminals or illicit organisations.
providing last location to private detective agencies.
selling data about food preference to food delivery apps.
selling data to AI or machine learning companies who want to create a new algorithm.
Facebook also owns Instagram & Whatsapp which have millions of users worldwide. So there is no shortage of data for Zuckerberg to sell.
People can be creative for destructive purposes as well. I imagined all this uses (which are all possible for sure) in just 5 minutes! Imagine if this opportunity is given to professionals.
AMAZON
Jeff Bezos has successfully created an addictive ecosystem for the masses. It already has tons of data about you at this moment. Now it does not need the assistance of third parties to exploit your data. It can use its owns resources like Prime Video, Photos, Music etc to collect data & convert it into resources. I have given a detailed explanation about the same HERE. (Link provided at the end as well).
EXTERNAL FACTORS
incoherent data & privacy laws around the world
lack of data localisation (data localisation stops trans-national selling of data)
In case of China, there is an Article 77 of the State Security Law which forces Chinese companies to divulge user data to the government. Such laws if passed in other nations would pose a huge threat to data privacy.
limited transparency by tech companies who do not make their records public.
lack of international watchdogs who can monitor & halt such malpractices.
These external factors also play a crucial part in breaching data privacy. Eliminating these factors can create hindrances for these tech companies.
I HOPE YOU GET THE GIST OF MY ARGUMENT. ANY QUESTIONS ARE WELCOME.
PEACE.
Here's the link to the Amazon article:
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