What would you do if a single company had access to all of your personal information and could narrate your life’s story back to you?

The Problem

That is the dilemma faced by millions across the globe with the rise of corporations like Apple, Facebook, and Google.

Because of our ever-increasing dependence on the internet, our exposure to companies that dominate the World Wide Web is also growing. With the abrupt change to our lifestyle that came to be the pandemic, our usage of the internet has skyrocketed. Companies such as Zoom experienced as much as 30x more usage within the months following the start of the lockdown. Online technologies used to communicate underwent extensive growth and popularity—namely Discord, Microsoft Teams, and some other competitors.

A prime example of the info that tech giants have been able to collect on their users over the years is the Cambridge Analytica scandal. 87 million users and a lot of bad publicity can certainly cause a lot of doubt about the company. Facebook is not the only company to collect data at such a large capacity. As the tech giants have grown exponentially in the last decade, the amount of data they collect has as well. Not only do they collect data from the apps they own, but they also purchase data from other companies like Spotify, Uber, and other consumer focused apps. This leads to a mass data collection that ends up in the hands of a single body which can be considered not the best of situations.

The Data

Big Data companies are known for collecting data of all types on all types of users.

For example, here are some types of data that Google collects:

• Places searched in Google Maps
• Apps used (on an Android device)
• Every thing asked on a Google device
• Every video watched on YouTube
• Every comment on YouTube
• All Gmail files, downloads, emails and even drafts

What the Data is Used For

Even though the pandemic struck hard and with no remorse, it definitely did not stop major companies from collecting your data. Here are just a few examples -

• Using phone data to spy and track BLM protestors
• Amazon using shopping data to outperform and 'ruin' many small businesses
• EasyJet exposing the data of almost 10 million users in Europe
• The Sao Paulo Metro in Brazil using its commutters as 'test subjects' for its new facial recognition technology
• Using tracing apps and special passports to track COVID cases

Data Sovereignty

In 2021 "Data Sovereignty" has become a buzz word of sorts; defined on Wikipedia as "the idea that data are subject to the laws and governance structures within the nation it is collected..."

Data Sovereignty is the idea that the data that any organization collects is subject to 'free-access' from the government. This means that businesses are required to give the nation data of any user that they have collected. Subsequently, it also means that if data is transferred outside the country, the third nation's government has a right to acquire that data. However, since governments are not 'friends' all the time, measures have been implemented so that transfer of data between nations is nearly impossible.

The start of data sovereignty is often credited to Edward Snowden's leak of the NSA Prism Spying Program. The program involved the US government collecting and storing private information such as login credentials, emails, text message history, and it was buying this information from guess who? The big tech companies including Apple, Google, and Facebook. Regardless of how much data they were acquiring or the methods to do so, this program exploded as the US was collecting information on foreign nationals and immigrants. Furthermore, the United States has implemented the Patriot Act, giving the United States government permission to access any data physically stored within its geological borders.

Amongst concerns of data privacy, nations have begun implementing measures to make sure the data doesn't fall into a foreign government's hands—the aforementioned policies in the United States are examples of this.

Putting the leashes on Big Tech

As 2020 and the coronavirus has taken its toll on in-person shopping, advertising and marketing have been the primary reasons for growth in revenue and pull to online content. With the correlation between e-commerce and debates about data-privacy, it is clear that as online shopping grows, so will these concerns. The debates concerning data privacy and protection have been argued over for many years. However, the huge reliance on the internet caused by COVID-19 has pulled more attention toward this subject. In 2020, a historic antitrust hearing occured in which nearly all members of Congress questioned Big Tech Companies such as Google, Apple, and Amazon about their power and knowledge of the general population.

It is necessary to understand how much knowledge and power such companies have over consumers. For example, Facebook's data leak which released the information of 533 million people, or Google's acquiring of Fitbit which gave Google access to the data of millions of other people. Big Tech companies have the information of hundreds of millions of people at their fingertips.

How is Data Privacy changing?

Companies are finally starting to make data privacy as part of a proposition to their customers. In April 2021, Apple released a new privacy update on their iOS with more changes following user's privacy outlined in their WorldWide Developer's Conference. Similarly, Google has started to phase out third party cookies and its end should come in the subsequent years.

Nonetheless, there is a clear gap between how business owners and leaders view data privacy versus how their users do. In a recent PWC survey, 55% of leaders say that their users and consumers trust them their data more now compared to 2 years ago. On the other hand, 76% of users express that sharing their data is a 'necessary evil'.

Even so, there has been significant change and a movement that seeks for data privacy. Examples can be seen with the growth in usage of Signal and Brave.

Data privacy is not something that should be ignored and will continue to haunt consumers for the coming years. The best thing to do is to make sure consumers do not lend unnecessary personal information to such companies and hope that no harm comes. It is important for us consumers to self-educate ourselves and make sure we will not do anything our future selves will regret.

References

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/08/when-it-comes-to-internet-privacy-be-very-afraid-analyst-suggests/ https://builtin.com/big-data/online-privacy https://staysafeonline.org/resource/data-privacy-day-2021/ https://www.secureworldexpo.com/industry-news/data-privacy-2021 https://www.accessnow.org/the-future-of-data-protection-what-we-expect-in-2021/