Are We Being Watched? The Truth About Privacy in Modern Technology
In today's world, privacy has become a joke, unlike before when it was so important and something we carefully protected. Today, that's no longer the case because technology has advanced so much that if you accidentally put something on the internet, it's virtually impossible to delete it, as the internet always keeps a backup of everything. Technology didn't invent privacy; it redefined and expanded it, and in some ways, it has certainly compromised it. This is a very bad thing, because today, deepfake videos and many other problems are faced by many people, and they are not at fault. But simply because they posted a photo on Instagram or somewhere else, they have to suffer the consequences.
In the past, privacy was a very important thing, and it was taken very seriously. Back then, if you went to do something, there would be a lot of paperwork involved, and those papers would be sealed with a special stamp or seal so that if someone else opened them, it would be obvious. But today, none of that exists. Nowadays, if you send an email to someone, your Gmail account could be hacked, or your Gmail password could fall into someone else's hands, and they could read all your emails and do anything they want. There's a huge difference in privacy between then and now. In the past, people were more cautious; they didn't put anything online or do anything online.
Today, people have become lazy and prefer doing things online, and doing things online is good because it's convenient, but you should never put anything important or highly sensitive documents online, because you never know when your laptop or phone might be hacked, or someone else might be accessing your device without your knowledge. When we hear about end-to-end encryption on WhatsApp, we think that no one else can listen to or see our conversations because we believe it's very secure. But do you know that's not entirely true? Nowadays, the Indian government keeps a close eye on everything. They monitor every conversation. They think it's for our benefit, but is that right? Absolutely not.
Monitoring someone's conversations and watching their activities is completely wrong, and WhatsApp is also involved in all of this. WhatsApp collects all this data and stores it in its personal storage. You might think that video calls and voice calls aren't recorded, but in my opinion, they are. Although there's no concrete proof, I believe all of this happens because they want to improve their product. That's why they collect data from everyone. Nowadays, this has become a huge problem, with people's videos going viral. There are many videos that don't even belong to those people, but due to deepfake technology, they are created and attributed to them. This is a very serious and unethical issue.
Social media has made the concept of privacy even more complicated, and we think we can control our lives because we make the decision to post ourselves. But when we make our photos, thoughts, emotions, and daily activities public, privacy becomes not a choice but a compromise. Technology has given us a platform for so many things we never even imagined, things we never even dreamed of, but it has also come with some exceptions regarding how much our privacy will be invaded and how many problems we will face. Nowadays, all of this has become very normal. But in my opinion, this is a huge problem.
Recently, an article was published stating that Siri, Apple's voice assistant, listens to and records our conversations. When this matter went to court, Apple admitted that they do this because they need to further develop and train their app. They said they record the conversations of some users for this purpose. In my opinion, this wasn't a good answer, because if you're going to listen to someone's conversations, you should either ask for permission or inform your users that their conversations will be recorded. Doing it without informing them is completely wrong, especially since it involves people's personal moments and private conversations. This is a very serious incident, and a major case is currently ongoing in the High Court regarding this matter.
And it wouldn't be wrong to say that technology has completely destroyed privacy, and yet, technology also defines privacy. Previously, privacy was a given state. Today, privacy is a conscious choice. Technology is not simply a tool; it's neither entirely a villain nor entirely a hero. The future of privacy depends on how we use technology. Technology didn't invent privacy, but it has made it visible, measurable, and vulnerable. Today, privacy is a silent, debatable decision, and with every click, every search, and every interaction, privacy is directly affected. And perhaps, with technology, this will impact us, and we will have to be mindful of our actions everywhere, all the time, and carefully consider everything we put online!
Posted Using INLEO