These days
everyone has a smart phone. We download
apps and are asked a barrage of questions about ourselves, and if you have an
iPhone or Android phone the last question is typically about using location
services. We all have the ability to opt
out of this function on aps. Why then
does the phones OS supplier not give us the same level of respect?
In today’s
information age we are all so used to giving out our name, email, and birthday
out to access websites, such as Facebook, Pinterest, and Spotify. We understand that we are giving this
information “at will.” Facebook at least
gives us the ability to adjust our privacy settings to limit the amount of
people who can see our content. But even
Facebook sells our personal information to the highest bidder to be used as
market research.
The article
about Apple and Google states that they are gathering this information to
improve the functionality of their product. They are trying to create massive
databases of wifi hotspots. This way
they can help their customers find the closest wifi. Google says they are using the location
tracking information to understand the flow of traffic for the maps app.
Right now they
are keeping databases of information using a phones unique identifier, that
they say is not linked to any personal information. We all know that companies keep databases of
people who buy their products and normally have the serial numbers attached to
this information. So in all reality they
are just a database link away from tracking real people. I think if we are willing to opt into this,
then that would be fine, but the fact that they are doing it without our
consent is wrong.
Phones are very
lacking in the security space. They are
considered the easiest devices to hack to steal personal information. Now with the new near field technology people
are even able to pay with their cell phones.
So in addition to where you are they will also be able to track your
buying habits and credit card accounts.
If Apple and
Google are okay with storing your location information, what will keep them
from taking it a step further and to tracking your buying habits, or even
keeping track of what you are looking at online. I know the government has only just started
looking into setting standards for privacy on the Internet. I feel
that there is a definite need for privacy standards to be set so that the
average consumer’s information is protected.
Most people
don’t really understand how privacy settings work. No matter how easy Facebook makes it, there are
still people out there that allow everyone to see everything they do, with out
really intending to. With more and more
people using the internet and more and more people who do not really understand
how the privacy settings work, this is becoming a much bigger issue than most
people think.
I was reading
the book, “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie,” to my daughter the other day and I feel this
is how companies will react to being allowed to do one thing. If you give a mouse a cookie, he will want a
glass of milk. If you give these
companies permission to ping phones for location, they will want to do other
things like track the internet usage.
Until you put some restraints on them, they will continue to push a
little further across the line of invading the privacy of their consumers.
It will
definitely be hard to place standards on this sort of thing, since all of these
companies are global. I feel it is
necessary to make sure that large companies are not taking advantage of consumers,
and doing things like this with out letting them know.
