The Value Of Your Personal Data In The News
Almost without realizing it, we ended up living in a society in which the Big Brother metaphor takes precedence. We are under constant surveillance, practically everywhere. But it’s not just that. Our personal data has been converted into material to which an infinite number of companies, people and institutions have access without our being aware of it.
Our personal data is bought and sold daily. As soon as we enter the internet, systems retrieve information about what we are doing. What are we looking at, when, how, why. What do we buy. In general, how do we behave.
What do they do with our personal data? We don’t know at all. We know it is used for commercial purposes because information is sold to companies for which we represent potential clients. These then use very specific marketing strategies, depending on the tastes and interests they have detected with us. However, there are many who argue that governments and states also access this data to exercise some kind of constant “tracking” of our lives.
Nothing is free on the internet
Personal data is so valuable that in exchange for it we are offered a set of services that are at first glance free. For example, search engines. Anyone can use them, supposedly without any consideration. In reality this is not the case: we pay with information about us.
The same is happening on social media. Facebook, Twitter or Instagram don’t charge us a dime to use their platform. However, they constantly collect information, often of a completely private nature. They don’t pick them up out of curiosity. They collect them because they have commercial value.
In principle, this might look like a fair deal. These companies must receive something in return for putting all of these applications into service. The downside is that many problematic aspects emanate from this situation. The first is that we ultimately do not know the use that will be made of our personal data. The second is that we can possibly be manipulated in such subtle ways that it will be impossible to notice it.
Personal data and packaging
It is said that before, people had to be put under pressure and even tortured them to provide confidential information. Now we share our personal data seamlessly. We may not realize it, but every photo of our family, our friends, us, brings information. Each event that we make public brings information of commercial, political and also military value.
On every website there are cookies. This includes social networks. These are installed in the device and their mission is to monitor what we do on the internet. Even though they are often erased, they can continue to function. Sometimes cookies can be activated remotely and can access our personal photographs, videos, etc. When we accept cookies, we accept this.
With all this information, our behavioral patterns are thus defined. If it is known that you travel a lot, you will find a lot of information on travel. The offers that reach you will be carefully filtered. They don’t necessarily offer you the best, but they do provide you with information from the companies that have paid for it.
Hidden risks
Social networks organize the information they collect from personal data. Based on this, they make conclusions about our behavior, not just commercial, but also social. They deduce our more or less pronounced interactions with this or that person. For this reason, we are put the activity of some in the foreground while that of other people is relegated. We are imperceptibly positioned in boxes. We organize our world.
We also cannot forget the fact that many crooks know how to give value to our personal data. They do their analysis and cost / opportunity matter. Without realizing it, we often give out information about our financial transactions, our economic condition and many other data from which they end up profiting. In more sinister cases, we also detect our condition and the way in which children and adolescents act. The latter thus become victims.
We must therefore be vigilant with regard to our personal data. You should only accept cookies from very reliable sites. Social networks are not made to make our privacy public. It’s a great way to interact, but you have to keep some reserves for sensitive data. We must also not forget the fact that the internet is not life. We must therefore be attentive to the consequences of algorithms.
Our thoughts Doxing is a term derived from the English word documents. It consists of the abbreviation of doc (dox) and the suffix -ing. Today, in the 21st century …
