Privacy - and Why it Matters

“Who are you? Why do you hide in the darkness and listen to my private thoughts?”
William Shakespeare

It’s so obvious why we all need some privacy in the real (not digital world) that it almost doesn’t need explaining. Yet online so many of us don’t realise just how much of our privacy we are giving away. We sacrifice privacy for convenience. Today I consider the importance of privacy, and alert you to the sinister implications of the internet.

Different people know different things about you. You might supply your doctor with information you wouldn’t give your taxi-driver, but your taxi driver knows where you are going and your doctor might not. You might supply your lover with information you wouldn’t give your lawyer. Then again you might tell your lawyer something you wouldn’t tell your lover.

Yet information you supply online – what you say, read, watch, share, buy or sell – gets used for purposes beyond those for which it was supplied.

When the internet is free, you are the product …

One example. I needed to get my ears cleaned out the other day. While I was walking the dog in the woods, I googled the ear suction clinics I use, phoned it up to book an appointment, then opened up Facebook and it’s advertising ear suction clinics at me.

Another example, I was talking to my daughter on the landing outside my bedroom about a ski trip I was planning. I said, “should I bring my Timberlands or my hiking boots?” She said “your Timberlands”. I said that they were a bit old.  I got into bed, look at my phone and Amazon is flogging me Timberlands. 

Your phone is listening - accumulating information with which you did not deliberately supply it.

Often that information might be used advantageously. I’m a huge Game of Thrones fan but I only discovered the books all those years ago because Amazon recommended it. YouTube frequently suggests videos I’m interested in. 

Nevertheless information is taken, without you realising you are granting permission, and it is used to shape your behaviour, and influence the decisions you make. It can determine what you do, see, read, watch, buy or sell online. It is used to determine the content you receive. It is used to sell things to you. It is used to make decisions about you – the loan, the insurance, the job or the opportunities you are offered. It is used to influence the political decisions you make. That information could be stolen. In the wrong hands, it could be used against you in some way. It can - and is - be used to spy on you.

You have little idea what of information is being used, how or by whom. You have little say in its use, no ability to object, nor power to amend that information. You have no control.

“If you are not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to hide”

That is the common argument but if you are exploring new ideas, dangerous ideas, ideas that go against the orthodoxy, perhaps investigating the concept that the world might not be flat and is in fact round, do you really want some hidden power knowing what you are up to? 

The effect is to censor free thought. To censor your inquisitiveness.

One solution is to become a drone. Not do anything experimental, not do anything wrong. Perhaps that’s what they - whoever they are - want.

What worries me is gmail reading the emails you draft but decide not to send. Effectively it knows what you thought, but decided not to say. How dark is that?

The solution is to protect privacy. Protecting our privacy can limit the scope that others have to use our information beyond the purpose for which it was supplied. It allows us to have greater control over our online reputation. It enables us to grow and mature without being shackled by foolish things we might have said or done in the past. It enables us to explore new ideas outside the mainstream, without fear of being watched. Those that know about us have power over us. Protecting privacy limits that power.

But of course protecting privacy costs money. And the internet is free. Protecting your privacy takes effort. And if you protect privacy, you lose all the benefits that your phone and computer knowing a bit about you brings.

But that is the dilemma we all face. And most of choose convenience, without even realising it.

Thanks for reading and, if you haven’t already, remember to check out my gold report.

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