While I am the editor of two weekly publications which can be accessed by anyone in the world with a computer, I still consider myself a very private person. As a result, I try to avoid Internet sites and services that invade my privacy, collect my data and track my actions – especially those which sell such information, which is most.
Then the pandemic came, and I and most Americans were forced to throw much of our privacy concerns out the window. You probably did, too.
Millions of Americans, including me, gave away tons of personal data to get the things we needed last year. Food often came from grocery and restaurant delivery services. Much of everything else came from online shopping platforms. We avoided public transportation and limited our travel. Theaters and Broadway shut down as people were advised to shun them.
Zoom became our primary means of communication with most of our coworkers, friends, and family. We attended virtual birthdays, weddings, funerals and avoided sporting events. Apple and Google developed contact tracing apps that are now installed by default on all iPhones. Millions of Americans left the big cities for the suburbs or the country.
Most Americans have had a similar pandemic experience. Schools went remote, much work was done from home, hair and nail salons shut down as did many other businesses. I could go on and on but you know all this.
In just a few short months, people shifted their entire lives online, accelerating a trend that would have otherwise taken years and will endure long after the pandemic ends – all while exposing more and more personal information to the barely regulated Internet medium.
At the same time, attempts to enact federal legislation to protect digital privacy were derailed, first by the pandemic and then by increasing politicization over how the Internet should be regulated.
Concerns over Internet privacy had been building for the last several years but peaked in 2018 when the Cambridge Analytica scandal broke. Cambridge Analytica is a British political consulting firm which worked for, among others, the Trump presidential campaign.
You may recall a Cambridge researcher improperly accessed millions of Facebook users’ data without their consent. This was disclosed in early 2018 and in May of that year, Cambridge filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
After this happened, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared before Congress, where he was grilled about its user data privacy policy. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ended up fining Facebook $5 billion for privacy violations.
By the end of 2019, the vast majority of Americans felt they had no control over their data and were concerned about how it was being used, according to a 2019 Pew study. There was a bipartisan consensus in Congress that something had to be done.
Accordingly, Republicans and Democrats rolled out a slew of privacy bills, calling for jail time for irresponsible tech CEOs, a new federal data privacy agency and a legally enforceable Internet version of the ‘Do Not Call List.’ Most privacy advocates seemed to approve.
Fast-forward to 2020 and the pandemic, which required lawmakers’ full attention. At the same time, people needed the services which collect and use their data to facilitate many aspects of their daily lives. Some may not have been willing to trade their privacy for those services before. But at that point, they had to.
When stores closed and people were afraid to leave their homes, many consumers turned to online shopping for groceries and other necessities. Restaurant delivery apps boomed, yet many restaurants still went bust – and more will follow. Streaming services had a great year for the most part, taking the place of movie theaters and most other forms of entertainment.
School and work also moved online. Accordingly, employers turned to worker tracking software, and schools turned to online proctoring services to monitor their students and employees from afar. Remote schools put children’s privacy at the mercy of so-called “ed-tech” companies, some of which have spotty track records when it comes to protecting our privacy.
Final Note: Essentially, any service you use on the Internet is likely collecting your data in some way, and most of those providers are monetizing it one way or another.
So, be careful to the extent you can! Here’s an Internet Privacy Guide you may find helpful.
The bottom line: 2020 was a huge bust for digital privacy. Let’s hope 2021 is better!
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.