{"id":207065,"date":"2022-11-24T13:00:03","date_gmt":"2022-11-24T12:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=207065"},"modified":"2025-07-01T20:19:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T03:19:20","slug":"do-we-care-about-online-privacy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/do-we-care-about-online-privacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Do we really care about online privacy?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Privacy has become a huge point of contention in the modern online world as it sits at the heart of the current dominant business model. We now live in a world that is fueled by advertising<\/strong> and filled with technology that is able to better segment, optimize, personalize, and target advertisements to individual internet users. Cracking this code, which involves collecting as much data as possible on the users<\/strong> of online web pages, apps, and services has created some of the biggest companies the world has ever seen including the likes of Meta<\/a>, Google<\/a>, Amazon<\/a>, and many more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Understandably there has been a vocal backlash against the invasive practices of these big technology companies<\/strong> with people railing against the loss of their privacy. However, actions seem to speak louder than words and there seems to be some sort of a privacy paradox that sees us angry about losing our right to privacy but not really taking action to protect it<\/strong>. The question is then, do we really care about protecting our right to privacy when online?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Privacy in the digital age<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Privacy has not remained static as a concept <\/strong>and has changed considerably over the last few decades. Sure, there are plenty of privacy issues that are just as relevant now as they always have been, such as certain aspects of our identities, personalities, behaviors, and embarrassing incidents, which people desire to be kept private. Since the turn of the millennium, however, the free passing and sharing of new types of information about who we are and what we do<\/strong> have both revolutionized the world we live in and opened us up to a wide variety of new privacy concerns<\/strong> including identity theft, lack of control over personal data, and bombardment by spam, and phishing<\/a> and cybersecurity scams among others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The last 20 years have seen these news issues, challenges and threats evolve<\/strong> as big tech companies have gone from targeting us based on our membership in certain groups toward more focused and personalized targeting. This in turn led to the development of huge databases filled with personal and private details, which were then sold or in many cases simply breached and leaked. In short, online privacy these days is a mess. It is hard to keep up with, never mind keep on top of<\/strong>, which is one of the main reasons why today, in the digital age, many of us appear to be apathetic about our online privacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Invasive terms and conditions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It is easy to think that we simply don\u2019t care about data privacy because we continue to use online services that we know to have invasive privacy policies<\/a>. Instagram, for example, came in as the most invasive app of all in 2021, according to a report<\/a> from cloud storage<\/a> firm pCloud. According to the researchers behind the report, Instagram tracks and collects 79% of its users\u2019 personal data before sharing it with and selling it to third parties<\/strong>. This private data includes search history, location, contacts, financial information, and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to EU law<\/a>, Instagram<\/a> and other websites, apps, and services have to tell us about the data they will collect and what they will do with it. This brings us to another key factor that breeds the apparent apathy that grips us when we\u2019re talking about privacy. Sure, these big tech firms tell us about their privacy-invading ways but they do so in confusing language<\/strong> and buried among a mountain of legal speak<\/strong> and technical terms and conditions that would put most of us to sleep. The infographic below, from the Visual Capitalist<\/a>, shows just how absurd some of the terms and conditions are that the big tech players ask us to consent to before accessing their online services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Full infographic available here<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Consent vs meaningful consent<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We are supposed to offer consent to have our privacy infringed upon by giant tech corporations but in reality, to do so would require huge amounts of our time and possibly even consultation with a lawyer. This means that many of us simply hit the \u201cAgree\u201d button because we need to access the online service rather than because we actually consent<\/strong> to the company doing what they say they will do in the mountain of text we may or may not have just scrolled over. Of course, what this means is that people who do hit consent may not even be thinking about privacy-related issues at all<\/strong> when they agree to the terms and conditions as they haven\u2019t considered for a single second what might be in them<\/a>. This means that internet users often give consent to big tech operators but it isn\u2019t really meaningful or informed consent<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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a hot take is: consent must be continuous + context specific + understood, thus clicking through cookies statements or blanket terms of use are unacceptable

a hotter take: to withdraw consent at anytime, users need meaningful social media alternatives & 1-click data use turn off<\/p>— Rebecca Williams (@internetrebecca) December 24, 2018<\/a><\/blockquote>