Ever since technology has been advancing at light speed, the rate at which your privacy has been declining has also been affected. And the fact that there is a strange osmosis of all web services and cell phone carriers only makes it more difficult to draw the privacy line. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't have any or just stop expecting it. Especially since the privacy battle is a strange combination of corporate politics, government expectations, and ad agency agendas. But in the end, it's you who has to battle computer monitoring and cell phone monitoring software. Unfortunately, most of the time we aren't even aware of where the threats are coming from.
The two biggest competitors of your online services are actually the two biggest competitors when it comes to data collection and computer monitoring as well. Who are they? Why Google and Facebook of course. They're household names. Yes, the dynamic duo. And they know everything going on in your house too, electronically speaking that is.
But if we look at it conversely, do any of us really know what their privacy policies are? A recent poll says that isn't the case. A firm by the name of Siegel + Gale carried out a survey which consisted of 403 users regarding both Facebook and Google's privacy policies. The aim was to find out what consumers really know about what's happening in the general cyber world when it comes to their private information.
The findings were pretty dismal when we talk about the state of consumer general knowledge. Majority said they found it easier to understand official white paper and government policies than they did the policies adopted by Facebook and Google. Amazing, people understand fine print that credit card companies but haven't the slightest clue that Facebook and Google both actually revamp their privacy policies on a practically monthly basis.
Most didn't even realize that any privacy policy changes directly affect their use of Youtube, Blogger, Google Talk and Google Maps. Neither of them have any comments as to the findings but that's because they refuse to recognize "third party reports", making it even more difficult to imagine a cyber world of equality let alone privacy.
Facebook is an even more atrocious case. It's a social network. And hence, anyone using it should have an idea of what they are opting in to ideally. But the sad reality is that less than 40% of the users can't figure out how to use the API (application programming interface) to access and view the public information. Coming to the question of security, roughly 20% knew how to enable features which would block outside apps and websites from getting the goods on you.
After the survey, most of the participants reacted negatively to the information and claimed that they would overall lessen their use of both services as well as change their privacy settings. So in the end, it falls upon you , the user, whether you wish to continue with your current online practices or wish to opt out of the nightmare which these two services have you trapped in. If you still feel that the accusations are far-fetched, and that Facebook and Google are nothing akin to spyware and tracking services and people are just ignorant, then perhaps another more damning survey will have to prove to you how wrong you are.
Image: Slavoljub Pantelic /Shutterstock