Why I’m Concerned About Internet Privacy
So we’re the weird parents that don’t want photos of our kids anywhere on social media.
Why? Because the internet is a fairly new technology and we don’t know how this plays out.
And honestly there’s already to much information out there about us. You could easily figure out a ton about me with a basic search and some time. You could probably easily show up to where I work and know when I’m there and where I live too. That’s fine if you want a high five. That’s not okay if you’re one of the people that send me aggressive e-mails on a monthly basis thinking I’m someone else. (I got 2 yesterday)
Have you noticed facial recognition is becoming a more common thing. I’ve seen people scanning their faces at airports.
Maybe I’ve got my tin foil hat on to tight but when everyone was posting photos of themselves using that aging app it made me wonder if that was being used to better train AI how to recognize faces. Same thing when the 10 year challenge was going on and everyone was posting photos of themselves today and then a decade ago.
Have you downloaded your google file? I’ve heard of people having 60 gigs of information on them. Where they’ve travelled down to the minute, all of their search history, and voice files.
Facebook has a file on you that you can download as well. I’ve heard google has more information than facebook. Instagram is owned by facebook. And I’m sure twitter and apple are offenders too.
They say if the app is free, data about you is how they are making money.
Over the past 10 years of me living a pretty public life on the internet through blogs and social media, what kind of “profile” has been collected on me?
But if you have nothing to hide it doesn’t matter right?
It doesn’t matter until someone decides what you don’t think needs to be hidden is now offensive.
I read somewhere, I’m not sure if it’s true, but it doesn’t seem to far off, when you upload a photo to facebook they put data on that photo so facebook can tell if someone downloads that photo and uploads it elsewhere even if it’s not facebook.
Meaning if I upload a photo to facebook. You download it and send it to a cousin. Your cousin then uploads that photo to his blog. Facebook knows where that photo originated and now knows that somehow I’m associated with your cousin.
The thing that scared me the most is how China is using surveillance to make people groups disappear. Watch this 30 minute vice piece. I knew someone near that region and didn’t know how bad it was.
I also read that at certain border crossings the government will confiscate and search your phone and if you have anything they deem not okay (videos, books, webpages visited, contacts) they will take action.
As a Christian missionary in the largest missions organization in the world, who has contacts everywhere, how does this progress? How does this unfold for me being associated with people in nations that are hostile to the gospel? Am I putting them at risk?
As technology advances how bad could things get? What steps should we be taking now to protect ourselves and our friends that are on the front lines?
I was on a trip in Asia and our team was literally tailed by a person, who handed us a small recording device where we could hear our conversations. It was a heads up to us just to let us know we were being watched. That was almost 20 years ago.
Real concern? Or tin foil drama?
