We so freely give up our personal information sometimes without even realizing it. There are many examples where we may ignore our own privacy. Here are a few.
Got a company phone? Yea, it’s probably being tracked in one way or another. Any reputable IT department will have security policies in place on your device to track things like data and location. Of course, this is to protect intellectual property in most cases. It’s amazing to me how most people will log in most of their personal accounts on their company phone and computer.
I’ve seen co-workers pay online bills at work. That just seems weird to me. It makes me realize that most people aren’t considering their own privacy. Again, any reputable IT department will log all of your emails and activity.
Then we come to social media, wow. Most of these sites are using targeted advertising to get you to buy more. How do they get it? You accepted to a mile-long agreement about your data. You gave up permission. Remember the big FB data breach earlier this year? We freely give mounds of data to the tech giants around the clock.
Think about your smartphone. You’re carrying a GPS enabled, cell radio, wifi radio with a microphone and camera. Paranoid yet? People are joined at the hip to their devices.
So there are cameras connected to the internet 24/7 everywhere you go. Satellites watching us. Hell, I had a guy the other week trying to solicit an aerial shot of my house.
And drones? Don’t get me started on drones. If you shoot one out of the sky, it’s considered a federal offense since most drones are considered aircraft to some degree.
I remember hearing Clark Howard say years ago that Walmart at the time had the largest database in the world. Why? To track your purchases. When you use your debit card, they log it. That way when you come in to buy strawberry pop tarts on Thursday morning at 934 AM there are some in stock.
A few years ago there was talk about our phones sending and receiving ultrasonic pulses to track our movements. There are also rumors that our smartphones actually listen to us. That’s just plain scary.
I need to build a faraday cage in a cave somewhere.
Privacy is dead. It doesn’t exist in the modern age.
What do you think? Any good stories to share? Comment below. Thanks for reading!
