We all want to be better understood as customers and data
mining can be a valuable tool for helping businesses do just that. However, do
the benefits of having your grocery store know your milk preference outweigh
the risk of your personal information being accessible to virtually anyone who
wants to find it? How many times have you given out your phone number, posted a
status about a sporting event you’re at, or tweeted about the cool restaurant
you’re having lunch at that day? How many companies have you given your email
address and zip code to? Was that the same email address you use to log into
Facebook, Twitter, or your email?
You are all aware of just how digitally connected our
society is becoming. Over time we all spin a giant digital web of our personal
information consisting of zip codes, email addresses, pictures, purchase
history, etc. Of course, providing this type of information is all done in an
innocent way. No one sees any risk in giving out such a seemingly harmless
piece of information. I mean, you share your zip code with thousands of people
so no one would be able to track you specifically, right?
If you put the right hound on the trail, more times than
not, they can sniff out things you never intended for anyone to find. I’m
talking about super sensitive things such as your location or your credit card
information. Don’t believe me? There exists publicly accessible tracking software
that allows you to enter very general information such as a person’s name and
zip code and it pulls up all kinds of information on persons with that
criteria. I tried this using my own name and zip code and it was able to find
my class registration that I uploaded to a photography website 2 years ago. It
included building and room numbers as well as the time I would be in those classes. This kind of information could allow for someone like me, who has no
knowledge of hacking or programming at all, to access such sensitive
information. What do you think a trained hacker would be able to find?
As if that isn't scary enough, let us introduce the
increasingly accurate face recognition software. Sure it is nice not to have to
tag everyone in your Facebook photos but is it really worth those extra 10 minutes you save? Not in my opinion.
For Facebook to recognize you in a photo, they have to have the details of your
face stored away in a database. Now, sure, that database is protected but there
is still a copy of super sensitive information about the exact dimensions of
your face out there somewhere. Google uses this same technology and allows you to
Google a picture of someone and will search for that person (which is can recognize using one picture) across the
internet. This is an example of the transition from the mining of data about you and the mining of data that is you.
The point of this message is to make you conscious of some
of the threats out there and to ask you to guard your information. This is a
reality that we all must be aware of in today’s society so I encourage you to
think twice about what information you give out and to whom.
I have never paid really paid attention to those ads on the side of the screen that come up on different websites. They never bother me for more than just taking up some space on my computer screen. When my daughter is old enough to surf the internet on her own or needs it for homework I am hoping the ads are nothing that I would find graphic or disturbing to her. Besides that I don't really see what bad comes from the ads.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, I agree with most of your article, this society is becoming more technological and at the same time online threats are becoming more common than they used to be. Nonetheless, we can not be afraid to do our daily transactions; such as booking a flight or paying for groceries and dinner at restaurant, thinking that somebody will steal our information. However, every company that handles data mining software is also responsible for keeping customer's information private by applying various technological security measures in order to maintain its good reputation, customer's satisfaction, and acquire more clients in the future.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice to assume that companies will always handle data in a moral way but, unfortunately, that is not realistic.You are right, we cannot be afraid to live our lives. But we can take our own measures to protect our data.
Delete