Reading this article has changed my thoughts about how major internet companies are collecting personal data without the knowledge of the clients. Although it may say exactly what they are doing in their privacy policy, the amount of people who are willing to read through the entire document, or the people who are willing to boycott the service because of these breaches of privacy are few, thus there are still millions of people being spied on.
Facebook has over half a billion users, and even though they can monitor all of the activity that occurs over their servers, they still admit to tracking text messages of the client's that have downloaded their Facebook application. What really surprised me is the fact the YouTube can remotely access user's smartphone cameras taking pictures or videos at any time.
With the popularity of these two companies it seems like they are pushing the limits of the data that they really need in order to maintain a popular and enjoyable experience using their product. Logically I cannot see a reason that a video hosting website would need to take arbitrary images and videos. Posting a video on YouTube and having a video randomly snapped without your knowledge are two totally different things.
I feel that these companies really need to make it clear to users what they are doing and what the purpose of it is. By make it clear, I mean explaining this outside of their privacy policy where in the article it claims 70% of users do not read, which means 70% of users do not know about these invasions.
Monitoring data with a 70% secrecy rate seems outrageous, and in my opinion this quickly needs to change. Privacy isn't a luxury, it is a right, and these companies need to understand this.
Article link again:
http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news/facebook-spies-on-phone-users-text-messages-report-says/story-e6frfku0-1226282017490
What really disturbs me is that these companies can afford to engage in such activity simply because there is no real punishment for privacy violation, and secondly because the user market they have a hold on will continue to use the product regardless.
ReplyDeleteI try to imagine what would happen if Facebook came out and said they will not only read and store all our private information, but sell it as well. I think in the worst-case scenario, they may lose a few million users who choose to boycott them, while another large section would complain, and the rest would continue to use the product regardless.
There is a definite need for some stern laws to be put in place, before these billion dollar corporations start implementing their own laws.
http://csc300blog.blogspot.com/
I agree. It is very difficult to enforce laws on such large companies that seem to be heavily influencing the economy. With such a huge community that use Facebook and YouTube, the market for advertising is huge, which is likely why they can do as they please.
ReplyDeletePrivacy policies explain how the user's privacy will be affected if they use the product, but people should be able to use the products without huge privacy invasions, and actually have some freedom instead of being treated as some source of data.
Wow; that is pretty ridiculous.. It makes me wonder how far these companies will be able to go before more people start paying attention and making noise about these issues. Probably only then will laws and regulators be reworked to deal with these things more seriously. But change is slow. And the secrecy rate is probably a lot higher for any one app. I completely agree that there should be some expectation of privacy. Unfortunately, privacy policies have become more like legal documents companies hide behind that allow them to do such things.
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty crazy that so many people (including myself) use all of these products without a clue that all of their personal information is being monitored. I think something really drastic will have to happen for people to change their views on this topic, possibly something highly illegal.
Delete