Harnessing Technology To Kill User Privacy

Harnessing Technology – To kill user privacy this is what is going on around the world in the madness of data collection. Data intelligence became a sexist thing and job overnight. Data is new fuel and may be the costliest item on the shelves. Questions come in, “What is my privacy in the data collection race”? Are companies not doing experiments on me that too without me knowing.

 

Privacy – What is it !!!

Lets race for DataIntelligence this is what is the mantra for every company on the planet today. Do we really have privacy any more? What all data and up to what extend getting collected more than 90% of us are not even aware.

Some sources from the internet (reliable sources) claims that Facebook collects information like connected computers, phones, connected TVs, and other web-connected devices and internet service provider or mobile operator. This is to analyse your financial capacity & taste and segmentation to serve you adds.

While you browse and login to your favourite time pass social site it tracks your mouse movements, click stream, type of apps, file names, types of files on the device also gets recorded so that you will be given social treatment as per your taste.

Amazon, Microsoft and even Uber have joined Google and other tech titans in actively opposing the California Consumer Privacy Act. Google, AT&T, Facebook and Verizon — four of the first corporations that backed the fight against the initiative. Facebook and Verizon eventually withdrew their support we all know why (Cambridge Analytica).

 

What Are You Doing …I Can See You !!!

Somebody mentioned it to me some time back and I laughed then. The day you decided to come online you actually accepted “No to privacy”. Now it’s even worse as we can even use radio signals to see through walls so no need to be online.

Signals now can be used to monitor a person’s precise movements through a solid wall. What else and  how far we will go can’t answer now. But all these development for sure has its pros and cons sides.

On top of the blurry live image now AI can create real pictures to give it a meaning full description. Thanks to artificial intelligence or should we curse AI for this? Let’s wait for a while.

Your smart phone (Extra smart actually) records and decode your personal conversation and next day you are served with ads related to your conversation day before.

A researcher at MIT has been developing technology for detecting people and their movements behind a solid wall using radio waves. The approach relies on cutting-edge machine learning to interpret the signals.

 

Smart Computers vs Over Smart Computers

It’s been said computers can be called smart only after passing the turning test. What if the computer gets much smart beyond just pass and fail. What level of smartness computers will attain when they will intentionally fail in the same test. This is food for thought.

These days we use maps to travel and find traffic free short route, take pictures with location and date when it was taken and store information through device’s settings, such as “GPS location, camera, or photos. How we use the camera on phone does provide app maker with the information on what we see through the camera and it does send all info to their servers. Have you noticed after clicking picture phone says “It looks like you are in Sandton area in Johannesburg, South Africa”? We feel happy but did we ever realised what we are doing.

Almost all mobile apps suck up a lot of personal data about you when you use them or even let them just sit on your phone without even using. These apps are listening to your conversations by tapping into your device’s microphone. May be these app does take pictures of yours every time for everything without even you knowing.

 

No matter how suspicious it has seemed that Amazon is encouraging us to put listening devices in every room of our homes, the company has always said that its Echo assistants are not listening in on or recording conversations. Over and over again, company spokespeople have promised that they only start recording if someone says the wake word: “Alexa”.

 

Do we really have nothing to hide

Some arguments from some governments are coming as if you are a clean citizen then there is  “nothing to hide”. But also this argument mistakenly suggests that privacy is something only criminals desire. In fact, we choose to do many things in private – sing in the shower, make love, confide in family and friends – even though they are not wrong or illegal.

Below image is going viral on social media these days. (Edited and Added on 21st June 20:30 GMT+2)

Who would not be embarrassed if all of their most intimate details were exposed? Fences and curtains are ways to ensure a measure of privacy, not indicators of criminal behaviour. Privacy is a fundamental part of a dignified life. On the contrary, AI and machine learning are poised to give analytics a new and even more impactful role in driving our future in a much more secure manner.

DataIntelligence only – Who cares for User Privacy

Will artificial intelligence and machine learning kill privacy it’s very difficult to say anything with accuracy here but for sure the algorithms underneath are increasingly used by almost all companies and social media platform to make decisions about us, but often without our consent.

Data protection is merely an obsession or a basic human right; the definition is getting lost. User privacy is the lowest priority with all data collection factories around us. How much protection #GDPR actually going to bring back no one knows.

 

Emerging Technologies & Privacy

Could AI-powered multi-factor authentication will kill the passwords so something that does not exist would not be stolen. It will bring something that runs seamlessly along while protecting our privacy. ML technology will play a growing role in redefining authentication & authrisation.

But even as new public concerns over privacy have emerged in recent at the same time machine learning is helping and preventing cyber attacks. Metadata from emails, without compromising users’ privacy is helping and differentiating cyber saviours criminals to keep their attacks on attacks moving forward along to kill this chain.

Privacy!! does it really exist in todays time, when technology allow to monitor even your personal movement in your dark bedroom through solid walls.

Question – Social media, AI, quantum computing, and blockchain – deadly combo or a blessing?

Social networking websites are “deliberately killing privacy” in order to gain more and more revenue with emerging technologies aka artificial intelligence and machine learning by gathering almost all user activities.

 

Regulatory Changes – Needed for AI

• Ensuring people receive fair and equitable treatment.
• Safeguarding consumers – Spending more time on travel site you pay high ticket cost
• Directing autonomous vehicles – Who should be responsible for loss
• Protecting critical infrastructure – Like Army base or war zone
• Health care – Operating on human or denial of services
• Data Security- When designing algorithms and use cases from it, companies should ensure perpetual security of data collection, storage, and processing.
• Data Privacy  – Innovate behind privacy not in front of privacy to ‘defend in depth’ approach is recommended with data encryption at every stage.
• Data Consent- It should be the user’s choice of what data they share with companies with rights to forget. In case of a compromise, they must be made aware and compensate for the same.
• Data Minimization- It is only sensible for companies to harvest only the data they really need. They should also maintain it for only a limited amount of time and users consent.

 

Points to Note:

All credits if any remains on the original contributor only. We have tried highlighting issues around users privacy on technological advancements. GDPR gave some relief on user data privacy though.

 

Books & Other Material Referred

• Open Internet
• AILabPage (group of self-taught engineers) members hands-on lab work.

Feedback & Further Question

Do you have any questions about Deep Learning or Machine Learning? Leave a comment or ask your question via email. Will try my best to answer it.

 

Conclusion – Voice assistants are the new marketing battleground. But the dark secret at the heart of AI & ML is yet to be reached. The self-driving car’s underlying AI technology, known as deep learning, has proved very powerful. AI and ML are the topics of much debate, certainly, we would not be able to cover everything here. Data-sharing scandals continue to mount and on rising. A new proposal in California offers a potential solution: the California Consumer Privacy Act would require companies to disclose the types of information they collect, like data used to target ads and allow the public to opt out of having their information sold. This initiative & effort is now, facing biggest oppose by some of the most prominent tech companies. Pouring millions of dollars into an effort to kill the proposal

 

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