Our Computers Know more about us than we do Ourselves
At a point in time, we all thought we were just a number. A number of a bigger population with bigger identities and objectives. But today, we have a name. We are no longer just one of the 7.44 billion people in this world, we are people with a names, birthdates, news preferences, salaries, phone numbers, home address’ and favorite ice cream flavors.
Although no longer looking at people as a statistic may seem like a positive change in our society, You might think differently if your personal identification number was roaming the internet like a piece of junk email.
On April 4th, Facebook announced that they believed the data of 87 million people was being improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica, a data mining firm for the electoral process. In other words, a company that collects information of the US population for campaign purposes has our personal information.
Zuckerberg published a blog on April 4th, announcing to the world the changes that Facebook will be making in order to dismantle the data breach bomb. The post on the Facebook Newsroom basically tells us that all third party apps to Facebook, will no longer be able to gain access to any personal information of the users until it is approved by Facebook’s new strict approval process.
Facebook called the computer breachers “malicious actors” who simply took advantage of the search tool settings on their platform. Most Facebook users could have easily had our information taken straight of the platform and used is unprecedented ways.
Or should I say president-ed ways. There is high suspicion that this information breach was used by Cambridge Analytica in order to persuade voters to side right party. Cambridge Analytica was hired by President Trump, and the data which was improperly gathered from Facebook users suggests that the information could have been used for something bigger than wanting to know John Smith’s favorite band in 2002.
Something fishy has leaped out of the water and ended up right in our computer screens. But my question is, why have we become so trusting of the internet? Back when Facebook first came out my mom scolded me for attempting to put my cell phone number anywhere on the internet. Since when has our personal data become so impersonal?
People are willing to do anything for access. If Facebook told us we’d win a million dollars for pinning out social ID number as today’s status, millions of Americans would fall for that. But when Facebook tells us our vote matters, those same Americans ignore the “ad” and keep scrolling until they see a funny cat video to like and comment on.
Words are just words, but our personal information is private. Facebook, please return my faith in your wonderful app and let me go back to watching tasty videos in peace without the fear of my identity being stolen.
The internet is no longer a safe place to store passwords to important accounts or the addresses of which we live, it’s time to close the laptop screen and buy a new safe.