Data Security - A Serious Problem With Big Corporations

Being a Computer Science major, internet culture and ethical dilemmas in technology are two very interesting topics for me. With the growth of the internet, in particular social media, data selling has become very common for most businesses. For a long time many people were unaware of the potential consequences that relate to data sharing, until the recent Facebook scandal that stormed headlines 2016. Before that, companies were already selling your data out of the eye of the public. While this is mostly the fault of big corporations abusing public trust, it has also gone on under the nose of the general public for years. Companies have done a good job hiding the fact that they are selling your data, but as you will see in the picture I have chosen to analyze, people have had the opportunity to do something about it for years.

On March 21, 2011, Time Magazine posted a cover showcasing the information being sold by these companies. In the background there is an outline of a man, made up of possible information that could be sold to marketing and data analytics companies. Some are quite disturbing, such as “Spent $180 on intimate app. & undergarments on Oct. 10, 2010” or “Major Life Insurance holder” or even your address. These facts alone are enough to capture the attention of the reader. In front of the man is a price tag that reads “Your Data For Sale” followed by “Everything about you is being tracked -- get over it.” The main purpose of this image was to get people to read the article written by Joel Stein. Stein’s intention was to get people asking questions about the risks involved with data selling and the possible information being sold.

Before discussing how this image relates to culture, and what effect it had on our way of thinking, I think it is important to discuss what each part of the image symbolizes. The first thing I noticed when looking closer into this image is the fact that the information is outlining the face of a man. This may not mean much to a lot of people, but for me it’s trying to show you how much this information actually matters. Even without directly interacting with you, companies can buy information that tells them exactly who you are, what you like, where you are located, and a blueprint of your online behavior. This information can be used in many different ways, many of which may not be easily recognizable to an average internet user.

On top of the man there is a price tag, which represents that all of the information shown is openly being sold between companies for profit, usually without your consent or knowledge. On the price tag, what I assume is part of the title, is the quote “Everything about you is being tracked -- get over it.” While it sounds like the author may not care about the data being sold, I think Stein is saying there isn’t a lot we could have done about it back then. Especially when most people affected had no knowledge of it, and probably didn’t think of the potential harm it could cause. These companies are built to earn one thing, and that's money. In some cases, data selling can attribute to over 90-percent of a company's annual revenue, while not directly notifying their user base.

This image was created in 2011. While it doesn’t seem like that long ago, the internet has blown up since then. Back in 2011 the user base for Facebook was at 845 million registered users, which at the time was around 1/7 of the world’s population (Statista 1). Facebook had record of every users full name, as well any photos or additional information that was added to their profile. This goes to show how much information can be held on a single website over a period of time. This doesn’t include your regular everyday businesses such as PayPal, Google, YouTube, Amazon, LinkedIn, etc. When these companies are constantly monitoring your behavior and information, the odds are they will have information that you would rather not share. This goes to show the audience this image was directed towards. Anyone that has used a credit card, used social media, bought something online or in store, or searched something on Google have all most likely been affected by the data sharing at one time or another. The only outliers include young children, and people that have never previously owned a phone, computer, or credit card.

I feel that the main theme for this article was to show the reader the reality behind the situation. This explains why the title included “get over it”, as well as other blunt graphics that didn’t sugar coat things. It’s sole purpose was to use logos to educate the audience through logic and facts. If you skip ahead 7 years, this article is still relevant in today’s culture. I believe this shows how little society can care about large problems as long as they don’t directly see the consequences. The covers goal was to question the authenticity of the companies that we consume from on a daily basis. While it may have succeeded at first, there was no real change after this cover was released. In fact, when people create articles and headlines like this, it may end up making the situation worse. After consumers start asking questions, businesses usually resort to damage control. With data sharing being such a large percentage of revenue for these businesses, the odds are that public scrutiny will just lead to increased efforts into selling your data secretly. Since 2011, the public disapproval of these actions have been basically non-existent, because the general public hadn't known it was happening. Raising questions only works when it leads to policy that prevents this from happening again.

The reason this image stood out to me was because of the recent scandal involving Facebook. If you are unaware, Facebook had sold user data to Cambridge Analytica. At the time, Cambridge Analytica was a marketing company hired by the Trump Campaign during the 2016 presidential elections (Granville 1). Many believe this information may have interfered with the results or swayed voters based on their behavior online. Recent policy changes in the EU have been put in place to ensure this does not happen again, and I believe North American Nations should do the same. Data security has always been a serious problem with big corporations, but until recent headlines on CNN and other news outlets no one took it seriously. This image shows that corporations have been doing this since the beginning of the internet, and without proper precautions and policies, there is no telling what they data they will be able to gather and potentially sell about us in the near future.