Gone are the days where brands rely on the media industry for visibility. This time, the information age has delivered innumerable wonders, as it churns out numerous innovations on a daily basis.
One of the reasons that the society can enjoy such convenience and awesome technologies, is because of users in providing endless strings of personal information. Companies that got their hands on user data, can gleam into our habits, needs, passions and many more.
Put that all with vast arrays of datasets, together, companies have raked huge amount of profits.
But more than often, those corporations exploit this process, seizing as much control as possible over the data people are generating everyday. The reason is simple: they are driven by profit. The largest tech companies do have incentives to care about users. But ultimately, their every motivation in doing what they do, is business. After all, as companies, they need to please investors and those who care for them.
At the end users' perspective, this comes into one question. when privacy is a concern, why should we give more than we need?
On one way or another, companies like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and other tech giants, may use user data to create the best experience for their users. But sometimes, they go a little over the edge to get that data.
There are many evidence that show leading tech companies in spying on users. For example, Google has been known to track its users' movements everywhere they go, constantly by default. Turning this feature off is possible, but who knows if that feature is completely off.
Read: This Will Happen When Google Stops Tracking You
And even when those companies aren’t explicitly exploiting user data or tracking their every move, they can still carelessly handle users' personal information in concerning ways. One of the examples is Facebook, which has been proven to be incompetent when dealing with data breaches.
From the Cambridge Analytica scandal and later, the data breach which affected more than 50 million users.
Other tech companies can also fall as hack victims, and they may also track users' everyday movements. But Google and Facebook here, are standing in a different league. This is when considering that the two are the most popular platforms out there with reach and influence unmatched by others.
Furthermore, the two thrive on user data and offer ads as their main source of revenue.
So we can come into a conclusion that both Google and Facebook should do a lot better in protecting its users, especially when it comes to privacy, and make sure that the data doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.
However, things are not entirely their fault. If we go a little deeper, people are actually willing to give as much as they can with little doubts. While there are more and more people who started concerning their privacy, there are a lot more who don't give a care.
For example, users may install apps without doing some research weather the developers are competent, or giving permissions to shady and unknown apps to have access to their contact list, camera, account, phone and so forth. They may also register their email address to websites they have no idea what they do, using weak password and more.
These contribute to more data exposed. And not only to those companies the users' trust, but also opening the chances of their data being leaked by hackers when those companies got hacked.
Concerning these netizens, their habits are contributed to the culture of laziness.
As they give more and more data to tech corporations, they have experienced conveniences in doing their everyday life, forgetting the fact that all was made possible due to the data they have willing give to companies. This trend will continue, as more and more people are entrusting their information to even those who don't have the best interests at heart.
Data will certainly become more vital towards everyday life as time goes on. With technological advancements that push IT further down the road, personal information will become more than just a commodity. Corporations in other industries than tech, and governments are also having their eyes on consumers, and spending a lot of resources to peep into those average people.
If people don't start taking data privacy seriously, data mishandling will continue to thrive.
Tech companies always wanted to provide the best of service, in order to keep engagements high and profits to pour in. Since there is no way to reverse that fact, the very best thing you can do is to take care of yourselves.
Because your data is yours and it shouldn't be controlled by anyone else but you.