Tech"no"Privacy

In today’s technology-centered, hyperconnected world, is privacy even possible anymore?  Even attempts to de-identify data can prove futile.  When data is published seemingly de-identified, it’s often possible to re-identify people using other, public information.  For example, when Hubway posted data about bicycle pickup and drop-off times, some college students scrubbed it against Twitter posts to identify over half of the users.  How did they find the Twitter posts?  By searching #Hubway.  People are giving themselves away!

With so much data publicly available, maintaining absolute privacy may be a lost cause.  A quick Google search of yourself will likely yield results showing your current address (complete with a pin of your house on a map if you’re like me!), previous addresses, age, telephone number, and family members.  This isn’t completely new, as most Americans used to list their phone number and address in the local phonebook.  However, now it is much easier for people across the globe to access the same, and more, information – and aggregating and cross-referencing the data can lead to all sorts of problems.

Although we may not be able to completely protect ourselves and our privacy, there are certainly some steps we can take to make ourselves harder targets, making it less likely someone will want to spend the time and energy required to uncover our private information.  Here are just a few ideas I can think of:

• Stop Tweeting so much.  If you Tweet about everywhere you go, then you’re pretty much relinquishing your right to privacy.
• Lock up your Facebook profile.  The only information available to the public (at most) should be your name, a profile picture, possibly your city, and place of employment.  Trolls on Facebook that don’t know you don’t need to read about your entire life story, to include photo evidence.
• Turn off location services, other than for fitness apps and Google Maps.  At least only allow location services only when the app is running.
• Actually read privacy policies and consider not agreeing to sharing all the information requested.
• Use a VPN when connected to the internet.
• Browse in an “incognito” window.

Obviously, there are some more structural things that need to happen, both in terms of public regulation and private company stewardship, but this post is mainly about people making good decisions to take care of themselves.  We can beat the “we want more privacy regulation” drum all we want, but if we’re still Tweeting every step we take, then it’s sort of our own fault in the end, isn’t it?