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Pinki Dass

Digital Sociology

Professor Jesse Daniels

December 10, 2017

Digital Era of Privacy Invasion

Every time you click on something, answer a survey, or Google a question, the

software produces data which gets saved and shared for future reference for the government and

the third parties to use. The web has become a necessity to everyday life and not many

individuals know that there is the back side of the web where the information is being stored.

Almost everything we need to do in contemporary life requires a technological tool. As we are

becoming more modernized with the technology we are running away more from human

interaction. We also dont know that large technology companies are also keeping an eye on us

by using of self-tracking technology. Self-tracking may be fun and interesting but not when it

comes to sharing information. Companies have been making profits off data that humans create

using technology. In this paper, I will argue that increasing measures of digital surveillance by

using technological devices restricts personal liberties and privacy by saving, using and sharing

of information online.

Ninety-six percent of young adults are internet users that use search engines to find

information online and that search engine use is most popular internet activity after email (Junco

& Cotten, 2011). Our future revolves around the internet and as the need to use the web increases
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our personal liberties get restricted as all our private information is saved online. What some us

dont know is that we are being watched through our digital tools all the time. This is a type of

surveillance in which you are giving your privacy in exchange for the use of the web. We are

exchanging our data for the web and data is anything that provides significantly more

individualized profiling and modeling, much greater data depth that can be collected in an

invisible, latent manner and delivered individually (Tufekci, 2014). Even the smallest amount of

information that is collected from our devices is saved for future references that can help

advertising companies to make money from. That is partially why in most cases that you must

answer a survey or log in to a site so the software can have some sort of identification or data for

you to recognize. This private information is shared with big companies that are in control of

the data, and the companies use this data to make a profit. The government can also profit from

this form of surveillance. Big data and computational techniques are changing the ways that

politicians communicate with their citizens. It is making data voluntarily used by individuals

resulting in participation that is digitally mediated. (Tufekci, 2014). From the data that is

collected about us, the government can use it to gain citizens trust. In simpler terms, the more a

government knows about their society based on the data collected the easier it is for them to be a

figure that the individuals will appreciate. When the internet became a worldwide sensation, all

software had free access, and, eventually, big companies came in and took control, initiating a

fee for using the software. Data is produced through everything from a click of a button or liking

a post or signing into an account can signal a transfer of data and saves it. As we are liking a post

our information is being saved and the rich is getting richer by providing them the access to our

privacy. Not only is our data being saved but by using the web it can lead to restrictions.
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We personally use data to better understand ourselves to self-improve but what many

individuals dont know is that the using of our personal information restricts personal liberties.

The internet is a beautiful place where everything and anything can be searched, but it comes

with both good and bad sides. The web is not an open source and it comes with restrictions to

self (Leonard, 2017). Some individuals use the data from technological tools to deal with

medical problems and to collect data of everyday activities can help people improve lives as an

approach known as self-tracking, body hacking or self-quantifying (Wilson,2012). It becomes an

issue when the data is shared with companies putting our privacy at risk. Almost everything we

do generates data, the data that is made from computers and used by companies to more

effectively target advertising. An example of this would be the worlds most connected man,

Chris Dancy. What Dancy did was an example of self-surveillance, meaning he was capturing all

the data that he was making. It helped Dancy in every aspect which resulted in a significant

amount of weight loss within one year (Murphy, 2014). The usage of data provides access for

others to look over us. The data that we produce is a form of privacy invasion and we need to

know in what ways its restricted.

When we are on the web our personal information is easily taken and shared to the

government and third parties. The data that we produce allows advertising companies to have

information about us. Our privacy is taken away when the information is shared. Our privacy is

restricted because we cant keep our own data to ourselves. Almost all the websites on the web

and digital tools restrict privacy by accepting the terms and conditions to their softwares. Not

many individuals know that websites such as Google and Facebook can share your information

with third-party companies. The web is a place where we can ask all the questions and be who

we truly want to be but if there is surveillance we might just start hiding ourselves online. When
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we ask Google something the company uses our web searches to learn more about us

(Vaihyanathan, 2011). The involuntarily sharing of data is an example of bureaucracy. The

government plays a big role in this. Browsers, cell phone companies recently revealed that the

U.S. government contain extensive information about individuals (Tufekci, 2014). This type of

organization in society shows that there will be someone always higher that will have control, in

this case, is the government. This expressed that we do live in a capitalist society. There are

many forms of privacy restrictions for some it can be online and for others can be a strip on the

card. For example, in many places like Canada people's privacy resides in their permanent

resident card. A strip on the resident card in Canada that allows the government to find more

information about the person for border control (Browne, 2005). For the individuals living in

Canada, their privacy is restricted by the card. There are some cases in which the data that is

produced by the digital tool is sometimes not even true. In the last few years smartwatches have

become very famously used and at times they dont complete the job they should do. For

example, Fitbits watches in 2016 showed that fitness trackers provided inaccurate heart rate

results (Cipriani, 2016). In other words, the information is not only being shared but at times it's

not even correct at times. Privacy is being misused because most of the time the digital tools do

not provide real results.

Almost every digital tool creates a personal restriction for individuals. To lose control of

personal information is to lose control of who we are and who we can be in relation to the rest of

society (McFarland, 2012). Every digital tool comes with a lengthy terms and conditions

agreement that is way too long for the average person to read and analyze so many just accept or

agree. Expressing that there are privacy violations against us. This shows looming privacy

threats as the by-product of capitalist exploitation. Capitalism estranges people from both
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themselves and their labor product. Information that is created online or digital content is another

form of or akin to a kind of labor productivity.

As we increase the rate of using new digital tools, our liberties get further restricted because it

gets easier for the government to watch our online activities. We are not able to be ourselves

online because the person behind the screen will always know all the passwords, all the things

that you searched, and how many steps you took. There also seems to be evidence supporting the

existence of digital inequalities. Factors such as gender, race and socioeconomic status yield

varying degrees of technological ownership (Junco & Cotten, 2011). The two primary questions

that arise are why we are not allowed to keep our data to ourselves and why does it have to be

shared? The unfortunate truth is that as a society we do not get a say in a capitalist society.

The U.S. system of structural surveillance comes from the history of racism and white

supremacy that connects the use of deadly force by police against black men and women

(Roberts & Vagle, 2016). There is increased security against racial minorities and that restricts

personal liberties. Activists such as Aaron Swartz, an activist who tried to fight for society to

make the internet a trustworthy and open access place where people didnt have to hide and

everything be for free, was charged with multiple felonies by the government. This reminds me

of Max Webers bureaucracy theory in which human activity can be organized in hierarchies to

maintain order in society. Here we can see it with a limited access to our data and software. The

government and companies have our information and the individuals that use their products are

part of the highest organization.

As technology advances, our privacy starts to be restricted. Surfing the web is one of the

best things that could have happened to us, but it becomes problematic when our data gets shared

with companies so they can have more information on us. In this paper, I argued that digital tools
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restrict personal liberties by saving, using, and sharing of our data. To help prevent companies

from sharing your data there are some steps that you can take. For one, we can read and

understand the terms and conditions. Reading these documents allow us to better understand

where our information is being shared. We can watch out for which websites should be used

because digital inequalities are no longer represented in differences in time spent on the internet

or social sites, but on how those sites are used and what they afford the users (Junco, 2013). We

can also encrypt our devices so the data like contacts, files and pictures can only be visible to

you (Nield 2017). Also, we can try to detect fake websites or inaccurate news (WNYC, 2016).

News online has been misused politically to gain societys trust. It is hard to not use devices

because its an everyday need. Its understandable that individuals create data of themselves or

self-surveillance to get a faster and cheaper result. This can be due to different factors one being

health care costs increase there will be more emphasis on monitoring themselves for a better

future (Lupton, 2012). We must be more aware of how much of our personal information is

being shared and how it might affect us in this new digital era.
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Bibliography

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