Take control of your tech to protect your privacy
CHILDREN of the 80s rejoice – there’s a new Terminator film on the horizon! Even more fabulously everyone’s favourite ass-kicking icon Linda Hamilton is back too. And in news that will please all sci-fi fans, James Cameron is on board and he’s ignoring all the rubbish sequels and picking up after the second one finished (awesome news).
In the original Terminator, the Earth is destroyed by Skynet, an artificial intelligence with ideas above its station. Once, this concept sat squarely in the realm of science fiction – yet now we now live in a world scarily close to those that feature in endless, doom-laden movies.
I’m all for technology – after all, Resolver is one of the UK’s leading consumer tech services. But it pays to be savvy about your data and who is reading and learning from it.
Take the recent Facebook scandal. You might be wondering why it’s a big deal. I’ve been warning for years now about Facebook quizzes that basically mine your personal data and use it to flog you things. What’s shocking is the sheer amount of the information that’s been taken and stored (illegally in some cases).
Lots of people have told me they knew some profiling was going on but not the scale of it (I’ve put together a guide on how to reset your security for the big online sites and networks on Resolver). But we all need to be cautious. While lots of us won’t be too bothered by social media sites using your information to sell you things you might like, recording your likely political leanings or personal details like sexuality, is a step too far.
Part of the problem comes from selecting options online that make life easier. If you’ve tried placing an order for goods or services online and can’t face typing out all of the information, you may use the ‘log in with Facebook/Google’ options when using websites for things as varied as ordering a pizza or buying tickets for a gig. But every time you do this, personal information is shared.
And we’re also helping the machines learn. Those ‘guess your age based on a photo’ games aren’t just there to flatter your ego. They help develop facial recognition software. Alexa or Siri ordering you some milk when you run out may be useful but the systems are learning voice recognition to predictive technology from your interactions (plus she might be listening in when you don’t want her too, according to some reports).
So we need to have a debate about what happens with our own data. There’s good news though. On the May 225, 018 new rules called the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) kick in. The rules are designed to give you much more control over what businesses do with your data and you can ask them to delete it too.
So there’s a trade off with tech. Use it to make life easier but be aware of the data you’re handing over – and how to turn it off.