The Art of Invisibility by Kevin Mitnick
As I was talking with some friend from high school, he chuckled or even scoffed at my recent whereabout. I told him I’d been up to Internet privacy. He really seemed to contemplate for a moment, before tentatively retorted, “Well, I’m not a criminal. I’m an open book, really, just nothing to hide”. I was dismayed. I thought at least someone with the same upbringing could get me, and could resonate with me. Boy, was I wrong.
Privacy is an innate right to human, as stated in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights back in 1948. Maybe they couldn’t foresee the rise of Internet, but privacy was even more an issue now. Because we are the first generation that can be monitored at such a precise level. We carry a tracking device in our pocket. Tracking device, or smart phone…
So far as 2020, we’re fed with more than information from digital devices. They know what we read on news, and which snippet of articles we liked. They know if we’re traveling to a foreign land, or feeling sick at home. And they know all so well if we feel happy, sad or horny. Some data are directly collected from so-called free apps, where companies behind all this have sold our data to make a fortune.
Snowden leaked classified NSA files to the public, revealing what the government is doing to infiltrate every aspect of our lives. Yet people don’t seem to be bothered, presumably because they are, by and large, not feeling any tangible intrusion.
The ways reaching into people’s data are endless. Once I was confronted by a young reporter who thought she had never been affected by data bleach and had everything well hidden. So I offered to find out her social security number. All I needed was her name, and I finally got to know her SSN, every place she’s called home and even her mother’s maid’s name. People are not aware of sly lookups via companies that charge some fees, which are perfectly legal.
It’s not that data are collected that concerns me, since we insidiously give up privacy for marginal convenience. It’s about what are done with these data, and nowadays data from context are even more fatal. Privacy is a complex issue. Facts and solutions will be offered, and the level at which you adopt these is your choice.
