If You Liked It Then You Shoulda Put a Lock On it

Are you giving away your precious data for free? Letting faceless corporations monetize your data in ways you don’t even know about? As a business owner, maybe you’re being unintentionally careless with your data, or that of your clients. 

On the other hand, perhaps you’ve got eyes on your workers who are remote, viewing every keystroke and demanding to know where they are if the mouse is still for longer than fifty-five seconds, or whatever tiny interval you’ve allowed for bathroom breaks. (Yikes. Hope you don’t want to keep your staff, because they’re not going to put up with it for much longer!)

January 28th is Data Privacy Day. If you haven’t already, celebrate the day by checking privacy settings in your online accounts. Now you might be asking, but what’s so bad about not paying attention to my data privacy? 

If someone’s making money off you, shouldn’t you get a cut?

How do social media companies make money? By monetizing your attention. Advertisers pay to get in front of your eyeballs. Social media platforms are designed to be addictive so that you stay on that platform and continue to let ads get in front of you.

That’s… not great, but unfortunately, it gets worse. The social platforms also provide the advertisers (hopefully anonymized) data about what you look at, what you read, what you buy, and the types of content that you interact with. 

They’re able to slice and dice the data so they can guarantee the advertisers that they’ll be getting screen time in front of the exact audience they’re looking for: white suburban women ages 30-35 with two or more young children who drive SUVs, drink white wine, are active in their kids’ PTA and have combined household incomes of $100,000-$150,000. Or whatever.

The social media platforms are selling your data to other companies - they are making money off observing you on their platform. Where’s your cut? It’s your data, so why should someone else be making money off it?

Weaponized against you

If you’re careless with your data, it could get into the wrong hands. Email your Social Security Number to someone and the email gets hacked, the hacker (or more likely the people they sell your information to) now has access to practically everything about you. They can open credit cards in your name or even file a tax return requesting a refund before you file yours. 

There are a lot of money-making scams available to the bad guys. They don’t even need your SSN if they have some other elements of your personally identifiable information: bank account numbers, mother’s maiden name, street address, etc. 

Another reason not to save your credit cards on websites besides helping you be more frugal and intentional with your money: if the site gets hacked, at least your card might not get stolen.

Politicians can use your data too, as seen with Cambridge Analytics and their partnership with Facebook. Those silly Facebook quizzes that tell you what kind of potato you are might vacuum up all your friend data. Plus you may end up giving them more information to be used against you than you realize.

Surveillance

Here in America we’re big on freedom. Do you think being watched and surveilled all the time is freedom? And even if you’re white, cisgender, and straight, you’re being surveilled too - one way or another. It’s not just “those people” who are being watched.

If you’re the employer who’s tracking keystrokes or mouse time, in the misguided belief that will keep your staff productive, I hope that you have a lot of money in your budget for turnover. Treating your staff like crap doesn’t exactly lead to high morale. There are much better ways to boost productivity!

Maybe consider why freedom - to take breaks to go to the bathroom, to have a reasonable time for lunch, or even to think about a problem - is for some people and not others. 

Recap

Technology is a tool that can be weaponized against you if you’re not careful, no matter who you are. Paying attention to data privacy can help you make sure that you’re using it in a way that makes you more productive, not less.