TECHNOLOGY AND YOUR PRIVACY

    Smartphone market is on the rise like never before and new brands are coming out at a frequency higher than ever. While the market in the US is dominated hugely by Apple's iPhone models, the rest of the world looks to be more than just infatuated with smartphones running Google's very own Android operating system. While the comfort of Google's Android is irreplaceable by today's terms, aren't we actually compromising on our privacy to a multi-million dollar corporation? Let us take a look at the privacy challenges that the technology oriented lifestyle poses us.

    Google is one of the firms known very well for recording the search terms of its users. Every search term entered via Google is stored to a separate storage space, each for an individual user. These terms are used practically in predicting the users' tastes and during further searches, the results are optimized for the user, based on their previous search history, location, etc.. On the positive side of things, this looks as a very comfortable option of internet usage, for everything is personalized to suit our taste and internet habits. And personally, I, myself has loved this feature as it greatly enhances the usability of the internet for me. But, the thought that we might actually be feeding them information, that too, about us, sometimes very personal, for they will be recording them at someplace certainly, sent me shivers down my spine.

    Just think about this. You wake up. You grab the newspaper(or, do you really? Nah, I am old-school anyway). You find something interesting and start reading that article. Suddenly, you find an acronym for which there is given no explanation. What do you do? You take up the phone. And obviously as the next step, you would google it. Also note that this search might be either by text, or voice(who strains to type now-a-days, eh? Anyway, we are busy sending rockets to Mars via Instagram). Now, this search of yours is recorded. Let us say that the article was something about cars. Therefore, your interest in cars is noted down. Your search regarding the acronym is also noted down. Now, any term related to the acronym you search is gathered from various sources, ie., websites, and added to your interests. Just imagine the above scenario for about half a dozen of times a day. And that's just you for one day. The estimates for the number of Android users in 2018 is estimated at a whopping 2.7 billion people. To be put straight, it is more than eight times the population in the US.

    The magnitude of the information we feed to a private concern should be clear by now. The company has tracks of where you went, what you ate, what you listened, whom you called, what you know and more. Let us try seeing the things under direct bright light. The firm doesn't use this information against you. And yes, why should it? It makes a profit uncountable everyday. The annual revenue of Alphabet Inc.(Google's parent company) in 2018 is about 110 million dollars. But, before you make any judgements, there is no assurance that your information won't be used else-how.

    Take this scenario for instance. Google fails. Just plainly, it fails. Goes bankrupt, loses its market share to some new company. Just like how other tech companies that played monopoly a decade ago fell sometime back. It loses all its legitimate sources of revenue(though it is a very hypothetical concept, just imagine. None can assure against the fall anyways.). Its security factor becomes weak obviously and all its data suddenly becomes vulnerable, waiting for somebody to attack. All the information you shared with Google during its peak time in the market would still be with the firm unfortunately. A simple attack on its data grounds would lead to a massive plunder. It would be the case of information mismanagement of the century. Now, some other individual or a group or a corporate firm(yes, it is possible) will now have more information about you than your government has. Get the point now? Though a private firm is playing monopoly now, there is no guarantee that it always will.

    Your communication with Google is of two layers now(nothing technical here, just a concept).  You, as the user, and Google, as your utility. You ask, it gives. On the side-way, it stores. Hence the company knows who exactly is asking what, when it is asked, from where it gets asked, etc.. What can be done to protect and defend against the up-told disaster? What we propose is a third layer in the total communication with any private firm or service. And this layer should be a layer of the governments of the respective countries from where the request is sent and this layer goes directly into the middle of the existing two layers.

    The major function this middle layer is to get the information from the user layer and send it to the service layer anonymously, so that the identity of the user is not revealed to a particular private firm. By this way, the governments of the countries have more command over the information that is fed to these private companies and has accurate information about its citizens. What really sets me laugh is the fact that, today, people are more concerned and worried about giving their information up to the government than they are about giving up information to a private firm, run by some individuals they don't know at all. And until this mindset of the people change, until government intervenes and helps mask and protect the identity of each citizen of it, issues like the one with Cambridge Analytica and Facebook won't stop occurring.