The growing impossibility of keeping our personal data private is troubling.
The records of our activity and presence on the internet form our digital footprints. Digital footprints, unique to every individual, contain financial information, insight into our likes and dislikes, and the details of our private lives.
As paper has turned into screens, it’s nearly impossible to avoid the imposition of technology on most of humanity’s lives.
Equifax, a large credit reporting agency in the United States, uses personally identifying information—such as social security numbers—to organize s’ credit s while compiling their credit history. In 2017, hackers gained access to this information, stealing data from hundreds of millions of people.
Data breaches challenge the ethical permissibility of widespread collection, as it increases s’ vulnerability to data theft. Ultimately, the Equifax incident and those like it underscore the urgency of protecting our digital boundaries, particularly against large corporations.
To create effective data protection systems, North American policymakers, corporations, and individuals must work together through initiatives like the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which governs how s’ personal data in the EU is processed and transferred.
On a personal scale, if you have ever granted your smartphone’s digital assistant permission to your microphone, more data than you realized may be exposed for collection.
Siri and Alexa aren’t the only entities accessing your voice.
To serve those eerily personalized ads, social media apps quietly tap into device mics and use background sounds to fine-tune marketed content.
The technology we have employs data collection methods to not only consume its s, but make us reliant on it. The more we use it, the better it knows how to cater to us, and the harder it is to
go without.
s should to be careful of what information they’re allowing mobile apps to access and collect.
As technology advances, preserving digital privacy becomes progressively more challenging.
When each person exists as no more than numerical data, it erodes personal identity and homogenizes individuals into categories of consumers. Our individual identities should not be reduced to two-dimensional digital profiles.
The use of cell phones or laptops, which have become inevitable for most, should not equate to an automatic loss of one’s sense of self.
People are inherently entitled to personal autonomy and privacy, rights we’re now required to balance with the inescapability of being digital citizens.
Let’s pledge to protect our digital world and preserve our individuality in this new era.
Skylar is a third-year politics student and one of The Journal’s Features Editors.
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