Latest news about Bitcoin and all cryptocurrencies. Your daily crypto news habit.
Whether you know it or not, unless you are using a VPN, almost every action you make online is recorded digitally. Facebook, Yahoo, CNN, Youtube and Amazon –to name a few– are all using algorithms to track users’ online behaviour, and using this data themselves, or selling it on to third parties, like advertising agencies.
Thanks to the the European Union Regulation (EU)2016/679, commonly know as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as of May 2018 companies will be legally obliged to obtain explicit consent from consumers to use their data, and will face hefty fines if found to be illegally storing or sharing information. However, as it stands, most people are totally unaware of the amount of data that is being compiled about them on a day to day basis.
And it’s not just the articles you read on the news, and the items you look at on E Commerce sites which is being recorded, with internet of things (IoT) playing a much bigger role in our cars, homes, hospitals, even fridges, the average person is sharing a lot more data than they might think. So what different ways are we sharing data, without even knowing it?:
Social
In our modern world, it can be hard to avoid the lure of social media. While many of us may keep our profiles set to ‘private’, whether we know it or not, almost all of our data is open to use by social media platforms. If you take a close look at the terms of conditions of most leading platforms, they are quite open about the fact they can use the lion’s share of your behavioral data.
One of the biggest data drains is through Facebook quizzes. Taking a facebook quiz to find out what ice cream flavor you are, might sound like an amusing way to pass time, but in reality you are explaining to 3rd parties exactly what type of person you are, and in term what type of consumer you are. This data is very valuable to marketing companies. Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics firm which has built psychological profiles of 230 million adult Americans, and has worked for the Trump campaign during the general election and for the Leave campaign during Brexit. These types of quizzes are also used by hackers to gain important information from Facebook users which offers clues as to their passwords.
Wearables
With key players like Google and Levi teaming up to make wearable tech cool, we are likely to see more technology integrated into our clothes and accessories in the near future. Though very exciting as a concept, it does present another form of intrusive data gathering.
While some producers of wearables,such as Louis Vuitton will only share data with approval from the user, and destroy user data every three month, the same cannot be said for other wearable brands, like fitbit for example. In 2011, Fitbit users found this out the hard way when some users discovered their sexual activity appeared in Google search results.
Wearable technology is becoming increasingly more common and has even stepped into the bedroom, with options for sex wearables which can track everything from your thrust speed to your STD status. Despite the manufacturer of the ‘smart condom’ claiming that all information is collected anonymously, sharing data about such a personal area of all our lives may be a ‘turnoff’ for many.
Connected devices at home
Once considered a haven from the outside world, our modern homes are now an oasis for data collection, allowing everything from your TV to your fridge to record and share your daily habits.
iRobot, a company which produces robot cleaners, found itself in the spotlight, after the company admitted using its popular cleaning robots to map out user’s homes. Though the company denies selling information, its theoretical ability to do so highlights the the invasiveness of modern technology in our homes.
Recent court cases have brought to light the invasive nature of home devices such as Alexa. In December last year, authorities had subpoenaed Amazon for potential information collected by one of their devices which was present during an alleged homicide case. At first Amazon opposed the request, citing First Amendment protections, but allowed it when the suspect agreed to give the information to the police.
Though the case avoided a forceful head to head between Amazon and authorities, it does pose the very worrying question, how much data are these devices collecting, especially if they can be consider evidence? Recently, a 9 year old was caught and will potentially face charges after Alexa recorded his voice during a break-in. These devices hold plenty of potential to facilitate our lives at home, but as we turn a blind eye to their data tracking potential, we might be giving away incredibly personal information without knowing it.
Smart devices
Smart devices can be an excellent tool to help users become more aware of their health and daily routines. Although, like many internet connected devices, this new simplicity might come at the cost of your data. While smart utensils may help users keep an eye on their calorie intake, they are also dramatically increasing the amount of data they are sharing too.
Vessyl is a 13-ounce cup that can recognize any beverage you fill it with, displaying its nutritional content, and syncs all your drinking habits to your smartphone. Though the company says they are “not in the business of selling your information” they do go on to say that there are “certain circumstances in which we may share your Personal Data with certain third parties without further notice to you.”
Moreover, with the release of other products such as a smart plate, we can expect more companies claiming a clearer insight into our habits. As IoT sensors become smaller and more affordable, we are likely to see even more household items become ‘connected devices’ from our toothbrushes to our toilets. Gartner forecasts that 8.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2017, up 31 percent from 2016.
Cars
While the living room has traditionally been the most connected room in our houses, it seems that data is soon going to extend to our garages too. Experts predict that that internet connected cars will send 25 gigabytes of data to the cloud every hour, potentially giving companies the ability to track the car’s routes, its speed, and the wear and tear on its components. However, In the US, there are certain laws in place to protect users but no single law covers all the data captured by all the other devices in automobiles.
The use of this technology is expected to grow exponentially with car insurance companies. According to Gartner, by 2020, there will be a quarter billion connected vehicles on the road and by adopting this new technology insurance firms should be able to provide lower costs due to a better ability to assess clients’ risk levels.
While consumers may be uncomfortable with the amount of information being shared, until the new GDPR laws come into power, they are left with two options: accept the information collection and the potential data sharing that comes with it, or bow out of using technology entirely. Despite the new laws, many leading software and hardware manufacturers will argue they require data collection in order to optimize the devices performance. In order to tackle this without becoming a mountain hermit, we need to move towards a data aware society where people know when and how their data is being sold, essentially taking steps to regulate and control its use.
Author bio
Roger Haenni, is co-founder of Datum Network, a decentralized and distributed high performance NOSQL database backed by a blockchain ledger.
Disclaimer
The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the views of Bitcoin Insider. Every investment and trading move involves risk - this is especially true for cryptocurrencies given their volatility. We strongly advise our readers to conduct their own research when making a decision.