Privacy at Risk
You’re walking down the street, hundreds of cameras watch your face as you drift aimlessly to your next destination. It doesn’t matter the time of day, nor the location, you will be watched from every angle. In this modern day, people have a camera pointed at their face 24/7 and yet, most have not taken the time to consider that. Cameras are within schools, on the streets, in peoples homes, and in pockets. In today’s modern age technology has become ingrained in every aspect of our lives, but are people sacrificing their privacy in favor of that?
Technology is wonderful, it has the possibility to improve lives in so many new ways. However, it seems like there’s a new leak of personal information every day, with personal data exposed to the public. Somehow this has become a common occurrence, with only a week or two of outrage before moving on to the next disaster. Social media apps track your search history, learning how to best advertise to you and your interests. Despite this threat to digital privacy, very few take the steps needed to protect themselves.
New Threats
People tend to forget that anyone can find their social media, even if it is private. When applying for a job interview the first thing employers do is go through an applicants’ social media profile. Someone can learn everything about a person, their habits, personality, personal life, everything. A person tracking you through your social media is one thing, but technologies such as Social Mapper take things farther. This free software is able to link every social media account a person has, regardless of different usernames. On GitHub, where the software is available for download, it is stated that the software can be used to “create fake social media profiles to ‘friend’ the targets and send them links or malware.”
Technology offers wonderful new opportunities and improvements in day to day life, however, few take action to protect their digital privacy. With the constant advancements in technology, it is impossible for digital forensics to keep up with new threats posed by technology. In recent days concerns about Deepfakes and similar technology have become prominent. This technology has proved to create extremely realistic, yet artificial videos depicting people saying or doing something they haven’t.
The concern around such technology is real but may also be overshadowing other, more dangerous threats to the common person. Hacked security cameras, cell phones, baby monitors, and other technology within the household puts the common person at risk. Entire websites are dedicated to hacked security cameras homes and businesses, leaving entire lives broadcasted to the world. It is a dangerous world, but to protect digital privacy people need to become aware of the dangers around them.
