Your phone is listening: A story of Insider

I've spent the last 12 years, moving up the ladder in a top 3 American software firm, starting as a lowly programmer-debugger and now holding the project manager position. For over half of this period, I resided in Silicon Valley; however, I have now relocated to Seattle, where I do all of my business by phone and travel to Silicon Valley needed to provide project leads with guidance or attend meetings. In addition, I am active in my community, give to it, and serve in various nonprofit organizations that work to solve both regional and global issues. I've had a successful career and am extremely lucky to have the work I can accomplish. I hope to be able to do it for a very long time.

Despite this, a tech in Trump's America has an issue. I'm not referring to the ongoing sexism and racism that minorities and women experience in Silicon Valley, nor am I referring to the dysfunctional tech culture that regards workers more than simply drones. Instead, I'm referring to how the government and corporate interests entirely violate your right to privacy to dominate and manipulate today's societal agendas.

You'll understand if I'm a little vague about the facts of my employment, given the work I perform and who I am. My position, work, and popularity in my town make me clearly identifiable, and I fear that if my identity were revealed, I might face negative consequences. But I'm confident you are aware of my employer and, more than likely, utilize a product I helped develop.

Let's begin with a situation that practically everyone can relate to. Have you ever completed a test or quiz on Facebook? Despite their seeming innocence, these surveys collect data from your answers while gathering details from your profile and your friends' profiles. Even though this would be unsettling on its own, the current Cambridge Analytical controversy proves that all of the juicy data gathered were combined into a highly individualized psychographic picture of you.

What are the purposes of these psychographic profiles? According to Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie, these profiles were used to rigging political elections worldwide. [1] One well-known customer was Donald Trump, who employed Cambridge's psychographic profiles to organize his campaign before the 2016 election.

Facebook wants more than just your personal data; it also wants access to your financial data. Fortune and the Wall Street Journal claim that Facebook has agreements with central banks to provide important information on where and what you purchase. This is in return for banks receiving access to Facebook Messenger to market to Facebook users directly. [2]

This is troubling when you consider the kinds of data that your bank and Facebook have on you; in the end, between the two, there is almost any sensitive information that they do not possess in any capacity. With the addition of personal financial data to its databases, Facebook will have virtual profiles that are effectively digital clones of ourselves. Accepting that our identities are exposed to internal theft and valuable targets for hackers outside would require us to trust Facebook with this collection of sensitive data, which is a severe problem given the ongoing rise in cybersecurity breaches.

Facebook has long emphasized the power of its two-way encryption, which guarantees that messages are secure from both the sender's and the recipient's perspectives. But it appears that could be coming to an end very soon. Insiders have disclosed that the U.S. The government is seeking to persuade Facebook to grant a backdoor into its Messenger program so that it may intercept conversations transmitted over the well-known chat platform in a previously unreported California case that is now under seal. [3]

As part of an ongoing investigation into the criminal organization MS-13, the government presents the monitoring of the Messenger as essential for maintaining national security. But sadly, history has repeatedly demonstrated that such intrusive actions seldom go unchallenged, and this decision would give the U.S. Government unrestricted access to your correspondence as well. If they deem it essential, they may even end up gathering it all in an NSA-style metadata sweep.

The problems with Facebook extend beyond the central social media platform; several affiliate firms have also had privacy difficulties. The revelation that Instagram has been hacked is undoubtedly the most significant while underreported (or maybe partially hidden).

Hundreds of Instagram users have complained in the last two years that third parties have hacked their accounts and used their photographs for their own personal advantage. [4] Thousands more people have reported hacking attempts. With a valuation of over $100 billion and a significant share of Facebook's yearly 13% growth, Instagram is one of Facebook's main revenue generators. However, the website has failed to offer cutting-edge safeguards to preserve user privacy, much like Facebook. While you may safeguard yourself by turning on two-factor authentication, Instagram does not appear to be doing anything to prevent you from becoming the next victim.

The consequences of the Instagram hack are enormous, especially in light of the development of face recognition technology. Even more concerning is the government's access to the material of Snapchat, a rival picture social networking app. The Instagram breach has far-reaching effects, particularly in light of the advancement of facial recognition technology. The government's access to Snapchat's content, a competing photo social networking service, is much more worrisome.

Even if you've set your "snaps" to expire, the government now has access to all of the photographs you send on Snapchat until 2034 because of the FTC's 2014 consent settlement with the company. [6] The Government's efforts have gone unreported as it continues to access your information, even though this successfully avoids the non-permanence of photographs that made Snapchat so successful in the first place.

Although I have been harping on Facebook, Zuckerberg is hardly the worst culprit. No, the well-known internet search behemoth Google and its parent corporation Alphabet may be the ones that pose the greatest threat to our freedom and autonomy. Google is the undisputed leader in technology, and the company has permeated every area of our lives. By keeping your personal information for its own purposes, Google appears to strengthen its iron grasp on the internet management.

Even though you erased your browsing history, it doesn't mean Google staff members still don't often access it. To generate revenue, information like the websites you search for, the methods you use, the links you click, the videos you view, and even deleted search words that you never looked for are cataloged and accessible. [7]

Because this data is not anonymized, the fact that your searches are recorded might not be as benign as you believe. Instead, only you can claim ownership of your own past. Google records your IP address, server, and geographic location while you use any of its services, including the Chrome browser. It also gathers nebulous "personal identifiers" from third-party affiliates.

The worst error you can make is to think that telling internet companies like Google to cease collecting data would stop them. Although disabling phone tracking in the settings for your Google apps can make you feel better, location data is still being gathered. [8] You leave digital traces whenever you use the search or Maps services, which Google keeps. Google unambiguously advised customers that disabling the location and history features would protect them from the tech company's probing eyes before looking into this problem. Although reality often defies fiction, it appears that there is no way for a Google service customer to stop data gathering and protect their privacy.

What purpose does this information serve? Google purports to gather your data for the sake of third-party targeted advertising. Regardless of right or wrong, numerous people would be okay with an outside power knowing only their whereabouts; after all, there's nothing to worry about if you have nothing to conceal, right?

Google also listens to everything you say while you're near a Google-backed microphone and tracking your whereabouts. According to Vice journalists, your phone not only routinely records all audio it receives, including what you say when you speak, but it also utilizes that data to show customized advertisements. [9] At first glance, this might appear harmless enough, yet it establishes a risky precedent. Your phones are essentially listening to everything you say and relaying it to a third party outside your awareness or agreement. Location information is one thing but having a firm keep a record of what you say in front of microphones is quite another.

These businesses and the government are on a mission to obtain your information by whatever means possible. It's difficult to define why, but all of this adds up to a danger that you can't choose to ignore. Send us an email with the subject line "Privacy Antidote" to receive materials on how to protect yourself and to keep informed about privacy news.