Privacy Risks and the Internet
Every time you visit a website or use an app, there is a good chance that it is collecting some form of information about you. This data could be directly tied to your personal identity (such as your name) your device (such as your IP address) or how you use the provided service (for example, most social media platforms track the kinds of content that you tend to enjoy, so that they can customize your feed and hopefully increase your engagement). Outside of trying to improve their service, companies are free to use consumer data however else they like. This raises a number of concerns surrounding online privacy and data practices. How Data is Collected and Shared
It is standard practice for companies and websites to track their users' every action, from the time of day they are active to their content preferences to the different people they interact with online. All of this combined data can create a detailed picture of a person's identity; and it is not limited to individual platforms. Companies often share and sell information with other groups, including government organizations and third-party data brokers. This is often done without consumers' knowledge or consent. The truth is that once someone's information is collected, they have little to no control over where it might end up. Data Breaches
Data breaches occur when sensitive information is handled by a person unauthorized to do so. They are unfortunately a fairly common occurance in the digital age, where organizations oftentimes do not have strong enough security measures in place to protect their databases. Hackers can take advantage of these security weaknesses to steal and tamper with information. One of the biggest examples of this is the 2013 attack on Yahoo, in which 3 billion accounts were breached. Employees can also obtain confidential data from the companies that they work for, whether maliciously or unintentionally. Recently, Verizon reported that one of their workers had inadvertantly gained unauthorized access to a file containing the information of roughly 63,000 employees. The breach took place in September 2023 but was not publicly disclosed until February 2024.
A concerning truth about online privacy is that most people don't even know what is being done with their data. Companies are often deliberately vague when it comes to laying out the specifics of how they handle consumer information; they write their privacy policies in loose or difficult-to-understand terms, so that the average user skims past without actually comprehending the practices being described. After all, if people are uninformed about how online platforms are using their data, they cannot object when it is collected and sold without their consent.