Leticia Municio Pardo

Whensharingislivingandprivacyisanillusion

AsFrancisBacononcesaidKnowledgeispower.Andthatispreciselywhatweare
givingtomillionsofcorporationsandentitiesaroundtheworld:Power.
WithdrawingcashfromanATM,payingwithacreditordebitcard,renting acar,
sendinganemail,surfingthewebanoverwhelmingnumberofourunimportantdaily
activities involve some sort of electronic identification. And with electronic
identificationcomestheonlineprintthatweleavebehind.Agiganticeverlastingonline
printmadeofgigabytesandgigabytesofdataofallsorts.Everymovewemakeonline
leavesatraceandweseldomrealisetowhatextent.
Takingtheexampleofsocialmediaalone,whichhasanestimateof2billionusers
worldwide,(Statista,2015)wefindthatnetworkssuchasFacebookhaveinformationon
our appearance, our favourite places, our friends, what schools or universities we
attended,themusicwelistento,whatbrandsorcelebritieswelike,whatareoursports
allegiancesandthisisjusttheinformationthatwevoluntarilyprovide,therealissue
liesintheinformationthatweunwittinglysharewiththeworld.
Inanerainwhichwelivehalfourlivesonlineandinwhichwehavecountlesssocial,
financialandevensexualinteractionsthroughtheweb,weshouldbeawarethatinan
almost Orwells `BigBrother like fashion, both the state and private entities are
alwayswatching.
InwordsoftheFederalTradeCommissioner,JulieBrill,Wehavelostcontrolofour
mostpersonalinformation.
Whenwesurftheweb,mostwebsitesleaveatraceinourcomputerintheformof
digitalcookies,whenweusedatabasesearchenginessuchasGoogle,theycontrolwhat
wefindandrememberwhatwesearch,ourclickstreamisfollowedandouractivity
monitored.Websitesallowothercompaniesintotheirsitessotheycanthentrackour
movements, they are granted access to our browser and most importantly to our
browsinghistorywethinkwearealoneonlineandwedontrealizetowhatextentwe
arenot.Therearethousandsofunknowncompaniesoutthere,flyingundertheradar
andtraffickingwithourdata,turningdatatradeintooneofthefastestgrowingandmost
profitable,infactmultimilliondollar,industriesofourtime.
DataBrokers, as they have become known, like for instance, Acxiom, one of the
biggestintheindustry,buy,collect,aggregate,sellandshareourdata.Throughdata
mining processes, experts establish patterns and connections, elaborate a
characterizationofusandourbehaviourandmakepredictionsonourneeds,desires
Thisinformationisharvestedandstoredinpersonalfilesanddossiers,eachbasically
delineatingthebeingandlifeofspecificidentifiableindividuals,andisthensharedand
soldinthenameofcommerce.
Asaresult,allsortsofveryprivateinformationrangingfromourincome,ourpolitical
affiliation and social security details to our medical history, our address or sexual
orientationisoutthereforanyonetoacquire.Anthereareseveralinterestedtakers:the
government,branchingouttothejusticedepartmentorthepolice,tobeginwith,andall
sortsofprivatelyownedcompaniessuchasbanks,insurancecompanies,educational
institutionswhotogiveanexample,wouldratherinvestonmicrotargetedadsfor
specificsegmentsofthepopulationratherthanfilltheinternetwithbroadgenericad
banners.Parallelythereareofcourseawholeotherlesslegitimatemoreendangering

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spectrumofendstowhichourdatacanbeputtouse,suchassecuritybreaches,hacker
exploitation,identitytheft
Wehaveafalseimpressionofcontroloverourvirtualidentitiesandtheonlinepersonas
that we are building, however we sometimes fail to see the big picture, we fail to
remember that in portraying ourselves we are selling ourselves, that we are in this
context, the product, and we fail to take into consideration the multiplicity of the
internetandthecomplexityoftheself.
TellmewhatyoulikeandIwilltellyouwhoyouaresaidtheEnglishwriterand
artistJ.Ruskin.
Evenincaseswherewehidebehindtheshieldofanonymitytorevealdetailsofour,
say, diet preferences or drug intake habits, like we do in for instance, on dating
websites,eventhenwhennorealnamesareprovided,ourIPaddressandourcomputer
ID number are still registered, and there are firms whose sole job is to match this
information with personal profiles. Even when we purchase a 99 cent, seemingly
irrelevantharmlesstorchappforoursmartdevicesweareagreeingtotheirTermsand
Conditions,andindoingso,unknowinglygivingthemthegoheadtotrackourevery
movementthroughGPS,evenwhentheappisnotrunning.Evenwhenwethinkwe
deletesomethingfromoursocialmediaprofiles,orwecountontheephemeralityofthe
informationwetradeonSnapchat,thedataisnterasedbutremains somewherein
cyberspace.
Thesearejustsomeofthecountlessexamplesofthepowerthatresidesinowningour
information,ofhowtosomeextentinowningourinformationtheyownusand
ofhowourprivacyisthepricewearepayingforlivingintheeraoftechnology.

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ReferencesandBibliography

Anon,(2015).[online]Availableat:https://www.ipc.on.ca/images/resources/datamine.pdf[Accessed5
Mar.2015].

Blog.priv.gc.ca,(2014).OfficeofthePrivacyCommissionerDatamining.[online]Availableat:
http://blog.priv.gc.ca/index.php/category/datamining/[Accessed5Mar.2015].

Cbsnews.com,(2015).TheDataBrokers:Sellingyourpersonalinformation.[online]Availableat:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/thedatabrokerssellingyourpersonalinformation/[Accessed5Mar.
2015].

Preston,A.(2014).Thedeathofprivacy.[online]theGuardian.Availableat:
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/aug/03/internetdeathprivacygooglefacebookalexpreston
[Accessed5Mar.2015].

Statista,(2015).Numberofworldwidesocialnetworkusers20102018|Statistic.[online]Availableat:
http://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/numberofworldwidesocialnetworkusers/[Accessed5Mar.
2015].

Statslife.org.uk,(2014).Dataminingouronlinefootprint:valuableinsightforthem,privacyanxietyfor
us.[online]Availableat:http://www.statslife.org.uk/opinion/1838dataminingouronlinefootprint
valuableinsightforthembutprivacyanxietyforus[Accessed5Mar.2015].

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