The Dark Side of IT

The Dark Side of IT

Although IT has opened up a lot of opportunities for businesses and has totally transformed the way we do business today, it also has its dark side. Cybersecurity threats, corporate espionage, data leaks, as well as technostress and an imbalance between work and lifestyle. All of these are examples of the dark side of IT. Our tutorial discussed how IT can positively or negatively impact someone's life in a variety of ways. Within this context, the purpose of our blog post regarding this issue, is to explore and have a better understanding of how social media and entertainment apps are developed nowadays, and how we are able to identify the dark sides of these platforms. 

No matter what social, economic or geographical background a smartphone user comes from, they are very likely to use Facebook, WhatsApp or YouTube. We believe that is due in part to the fact that these platforms require the least amount of understanding and are primarily focused on entertainment. With WhatsApp's voice feature, for instance, even someone without reading or writing skills can use it. With YouTube's ability to suggest relevant content based on a user's profile, hopping between videos is easy. Furthermore, apps such as TikTok have continued to increase in popularity, enabling mobile phone users to create content.

Although it has equalized the market for viewers, it has also sucked young minds into the fantasy world. The social media landscape no longer demands intelligent content. Apps affect both the user and those around them equally.  For business owners looking to expand their reach, Instagram has become a widely used application. In spite of the fact that Instagram generates economic activity and benefits small businesses, it is not the primary reason for its use. Today, Instagram has become a platform to promote an 'aesthetic life', with most of the content focused on 'influencers', their reviews, opinions and 'routines'. It is here where the boundaries between reality, narrative, and perception get blurred.

Before diving deeper into the correlation of data privacy and social media platforms, we have a brief view of this issue. The primary goal of any app is to generate profit, which is primarily accomplished by collecting user data. An app does not see you as a person. They only see your address, your date of birth, gender, marital status, credit card number and browsing trends. By analyzing these metrics, these apps constantly display a reality appropriate for each individual. The data of more than 533 million Facebook users in 106 countries has been compromised. Numerous apps that use Google or Amazon as their cloud servers have also experienced similar breaches, but users often overlook these breaches because the information is technical. We can all agree that what we post on the internet about ourselves is never erased . It can be anything from photos, videos, chat history, browsing history, spending history, status updates, or stories. Breaches of this kind can be damageful to one's professional or personal life. 

Social media sites started as a platform for users to connect, and converse with friends or even meet with new people, and for that features quickly became one of the most visited websites in the world. However, it does set a drawback as users have learned helplessness. They don't know how much their data is worth and are too lazy to find out since they are already habituated with the current way of life hence undermines and unlikely to read the sites Terms and Agreements and ignore the possibility that their data might be profited off by these companies. This further disincentives firms from paying to other people's data

A question arises, should we start reading the T&A?

Data asked by social-media:

1. Classic administrative database (Age, sex, locations)

2. Literally everything (is your toast burnt or not, what food do you eat for breakfast, streams of data from jet sensors, etc). Sensors will be everywhere and we will leave data behind in everything that we do.

Uses of Data: 

1. Personalized advertising, by making targeted advertising or selling the data to a third party advertisers and other partners.

2. Improving machine learning such as personality assessor and facial recognition which can be sold as further products.

Why do companies buy entire data generating companies instead of trading their datas in an open market?

1. Data is in constant streams of supply, each destroys the relevance of the others.

2. There’s too many types of data it's hard to determine pricing of it (an attempt to quantify it is called infonomics). Each stream of information is different, in terms of timeliness, for example, or how complete it may be. This lack of “fungibility”, in economic lingo, makes it difficult for buyers to find a specific set of data and to put a price on it: the value of each sort is hard to compare with other data. There is a disincentive to trade as each side will worry that it is getting the short end of the stick.

3. Data is non-rivalrous (can easily be copied) so it can be used for uses other than initially agreed. All sorts of “transaction costs” on markets—searching for information, negotiating deals, enforcing contracts and so on—make it simpler and more efficient simply to bring these activities in-house. Likewise, it is often more profitable to generate and use data inside a company than to buy and sell them on an open market.

Facebook for example has suffered yet another data breach, private information from 533 million accounts has been leaked online. Even the company's founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's private credentials are part of the larger leaked data set from 2019. Are you a user of Facebook? Is your data included there?

Knowing that these companies know so much about us might feel a little creepy, but one might argue there is nothing particularly dangerous or harmful about having our data collected like this. If we have nothing to hide we have nothing to worry about. However, I would like to present some examples where most might agree are negative consequence of having our data so publicly available:

1. People getting doxxed

Often the availability of information means that people can easily identify someone and provide key personal information. This has been abused often, when someone has an opinion that others might not agree with, malicious users expose the person, by finding and publishing their real name and address, which often result in people getting harassed in real life. 

2. Usage by scam organizations

The data collected on us are usually sorted into groups based on our demographic and interests. Scammers have bought information on groups like vulnerable elderly and used it to target their victims. 

In my personal experience, a lot of online shops on the shopping platform Shopee will collect information and sell it to third parties. I noticed after shopping with them more often, I started getting increased scam calls about someone hacking my account or immigration issues. 

3. Polarizing 

The ability to identify people by their interests means targeted advertising and content about people’s interests. This means that people tend to end up in echo chambers where they are only shown things they are already interested in and they believe that most people agree with them. This would exacerbate the polarizing problem where people of different ideologies are not given the opportunity to be exposed to the different contents. 

4. People with stalker or victims of abuse

The data being so readily available means that often stalkers or abusers can buy the information of their victims from these data brokers at a relatively cheap price. This is very terrifying from the victim’s perspective as their information is readily available to anyone who wants to hurt them. There is a process for removing your information from these databases, however the process tends to be long and the companies are not legally required to comply with such requests.

5. Surveillance state

This information is not just used by individuals or companies but can also be used by the government for law enforcement. This translates into the dystopia of a surveillance state. The government can very easily use information against individuals. This is dangerous especially in authoritarian regimes, as it makes it far easier for the government to prosecute political opponents or activist groups fighting for their rights. 

So given this, what can be done regarding this? On an individual level, there is a whole list of things we can do from this article on wikihow. The one I think is quite easy and possible for everyone to do is to use web browsers that protect from tracking, or plugins and add-ons that provide anti-tracking services. Examples of web browsers with better privacy protections are: Brave, Firefox, and Ghostery. 

Personally I am using and would recommend firefox, as they have similar capabilities with chrome when it comes to security but do much more to prevent tracking and protect our privacy. You can find out more on this page written by firefox themselves. 

On the company’s side it is important for companies to ensure they are transparent in what they do, letting users know what data they are collecting, for what purpose and finally who the data would be sold to. Companies who do sell data to data brokers should also make themselves aware of what the data is being used for, to decrease how opaque the whole value chain is. Companies that do collect user data should also take measures to ensure the security of their system to ensure there are no data breaches and the information is well protected.

On a governmental level, the government should pass legislation to protect consumers. For example, requiring data brokers to be responsible for how the data sold is being used, requiring companies to delete data upon request from customers, or outlawing practices that are purposely meant to confuse customers into providing data they would otherwise be unwilling to provide. 

A lot of the information used on this blog was based on this episode of Last Week Tonight and I highly recommend watching the full episode. 

Now let's take a look at one of the most popular streaming platforms, which goes by the name Netflix. Netflix enables its users to experience a variety of audio-visual entertainment, including movies, television shows, documentaries, and other similar content, through the usage of its platform.

(What Is Netflix?, n.d.)

Due to the fact that we are aware of this, it does not come as a surprise to us that Netflix has the capability to customize its material based on the actions of its customers. This indicates that Netflix is actively gathering and analyzing the data that we provide.

Other types of data, such as a user's watch history, search queries, and the amount of time spent watching a show, are automatically collected by Netflix. This includes the platforms or gadgets that were used to stream Netflix. The corporation also gathers some data from other sources, such as demographic data, data based on interests, and data regarding Internet browsing habits, among other types of information.

The gathering and processing of user data is this platform's primary source of revenue in today's data-driven economy. This money comes mostly from the use of the platform's services by its users. When there is a greater volume of data created, there will be a greater number of users of the service. This will result in a superior product and increased revenue for the organization. There are times when businesses even employ consumers to train the algorithms that process such data.

Their primary focus is on providing customers with the best possible "consumer experience through personal recommendations, personalization, and data-based advertising models," which serves as the foundation for the company's marketing and advertising services. To phrase it another way, "The Data is the Business Model."

Then how can it be scary?

There is a big possibility that these online services communities are used as surveillance mechanisms for the purposes of data mining.

Like, have any of you ever fully read the end user agreement every time you’re signing up on your fresh-downloaded app? What does it say? Are you actually carefully reading each and every one of the terms for being consented or are you just immediately scrolling through your screen looking for the ‘agree’ button? 

Well, in that case… 

It can be said that now surveillance culture is facilitated and reinforced through technology. It is even more horror because we’re actually the ones who put ourselves in a position where we exchange our data privacy as a currency in order to enjoy their services. We are voluntarily giving ourselves to be the subject of their surveillance system. 

Many advertisers are interested in the kinds of data that most of us don't even consider private. Information collected from online browsing and database profiling can be used to create "credit scores" or "risk models" in which individuals are evaluated and ranked based on their anticipated propensity to pay/default and their creditworthiness. Companies that routinely gather customer data also stand to gain financially by making that data available to third parties (or "data brokers") in exchange for a fee. The consequences of keeping tabs on one's online activities can quickly escalate into harassment, humiliation, and even blackmail.

References

Data is giving rise to a new economy. (n.d.). The Economist. Retrieved December 9, 2022, from https://www.economist.com/briefing/2017/05/06/data-is-giving-rise-to-a-new-economy

Ghosh, S. (2021, April 15). Explained | How Facebook’s recent data breach affect its users. The Hindu. https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/technology/internet/explainer-how-facebooks-recent-data-breach-affect-its-users/article34324019.ece

3 Ways to Prevent People from Tracking You on the Internet. (n.d.). WikiHow. Retrieved December 9, 2022, from https://www.wikihow.com/Prevent-People-from-Tracking-You-on-the-Internet

Data Brokers: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)—YouTube. (n.d.). Retrieved December 9, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqn3gR1WTcA

Firefox vs. Chrome: Which is better? (n.d.). Mozilla. Retrieved December 9, 2022, from https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browsers/compare/chrome/

Fernback, J. (2007). Selling Ourselves? Critical Discourse Studies, 4(3), 311–330. https://doi.org/10.1080/17405900701656908

How Netflix Uses Data to Pick Movies and Curate Content. (2020, June 17). Ohio University. https://onlinemasters.ohio.edu/blog/netflix-data/

Demeterio III, F. A., & Parreno, J. B. (2021). Metacritique on Bentham and Foucault’s Panoptic Theories as Analytic Tools for Three Modes of Digital Surveillance. Plaridel. https://doi.org/10.52518/2021-01pardem

Qadeer, N. (2021, May-June). The Dark Side of Apps. Retrieved from Aurora: https://aurora.dawn.com/news/1144132

Your Data Is Shared and Sold... What’s Being Done About It? (n.d.). Knowledge at Wharton. Retrieved December 8, 2022, from https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/data-shared-sold-whats-done/