Computer Security Top 3 Areas Technology Could Be Invading Your Privacy

Top 3 Areas Technology Could Be Invading Your Privacy

Today's technology may put your personal privacy at risk. Some say that we've lost the privacy battle and being "public" is the new social norm.

No longer are you able to use something as simple as an iPhone app without potentially giving away your current location. Not only are iPhone apps pinpointing your location but Google wants to track your physical location as well. Facebook is still questionable when it comes to protecting personal information. You may not know it, but there are three main areas that technology may be invading your privacy and we have highlighted them below.

Three main areas where the use technology may be invading your privacy.

1. Google Privacy Invasions

Have you ever noticed a green popup message on the top of a Google page that says "http://[combination-of-letters-and-numbers].ig.ig.gmodules.com/ wants to track your physical location" or "http://maps.google.come/ wants to track your physical location" (shown in Figure 1. below)? What is this bar and where does this link take me to? Clicking on the link returns you to iGoogle but turns on a function within Google Chrome's (Google's web browser application) Latitude App. This application supposedly requests your location information.

Not only does this green popup bar appear through iGoogle but it apparently shows itself when an app requests your location. The URL of the site is simply the URL of the gadget asking for your location so it can utilize that information to make your user experience "better".

google maps wants to track your physical location
Figure 1. Green Google popup "maps.google.com wants to track your physical location"

How do I know that the URL in the green popup bar is not being spoofed or leads me to malware? You won't really. The iGoogle gadgets can essentially change or spoof their titles, or even create deceptive ones. Basically, someone you do not trust could write a bad gadget and reveal a URL that will give away your physical location. This does not sound safe to me and it gives us one more thing to be concerned over when it comes to privacy. On the flip-side, Google does use geolocation to reduce or stop Gmail hacking.

2. Social Network Privacy Invasions

In today's world of Tweeting and Facebooking, one has to ultimately be on the defensive and know the price one pays when personal information is freely (and, most of the times, unknowingly) given away, simply to enjoy the benefits of cyber socializing. The question remains, have social networks done enough to alleviate some of the recent concerns over privacy?

Back in February of this year, Google Buzz had a privacy nightmare when the service was allowing others to view contact lists of Gmail users. Users affected by this were furious. Gmail is widely used in business environments as well as for personal email which really tarnished the service during the time of this privacy issue. Just think of how much information was compromised about who-knows-who especially in the business world. Luckily this issue was fixed by Google in the following week.

Last year the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) updated online privacy guidelines. Included in those changes were regulations to increase transparency and consumer control in addition to having reasonable security and limited retention of consumer data. Just these guidelines may be a contradiction to how some social networks are currently conducting business.

Another privacy nightmare was when Twitter suffered from a breach that allowed hackers to gain administrative control over the service. Access was obtained from hacked employees systems, which contained administrative passwords. Hackers were able to view email addresses and other private user data during the breach which later resulted in fake tweets sent from user accounts. When a social network harbors valuable user information, its security should include guidelines that prohibit employees from storing admin passwords.

3. Smart Phone Privacy Invasions

If you have an iPhone or iPad, you may already know what a nuisance it is deciding on whether you should give an app permission to use your location data (demonstrated in Figure 2 below). If you ever thought that your privacy was being invaded by giving your location away in 50% of the iPhone apps, then you are not alone.

Lately Apple has come under fire for questionable practices mainly with privacy concerns. Did you know that, according to the Los Angeles Times, Apple collects real-time geographic location information about users of iPhones and iPads? Just recently, Apple has updated their privacy policy to include information about location-based services. This has to do with apps using your current physical location. What is Apple doing with this information? For now, as it states in the "location-based services" section of Apples privacy policy, location data is collected anonymously. Some analysts will say that is not entirely true.

iphone maps qould like to user your current location
Figure 2. iPhone maps app requesting to use your current location

When large amounts of data are collected, there is a way to reconstruct information about individuals. The New York Times even revealed a situation where researchers at the University of Texas were able to personally identify individuals from large amounts of data in a Netflix contest. In the contest, all of the data was stripped of names and other direct identifying information but the researchers were able to "de-anonymized" the data by statistically analyzing an individual's distinctive pattern of movie ratings and recommendations.

Do you always opt out of giving location data when using your smart phone? Are you aware that when you surf online using your computer or smart phone that you are not you're not as anonymous as you may think? After reading this article, are you more hesitant to relinquish certain information about you in exchange for using a free service or app? Do you feel fighting to protect your online privacy is a losing battle?

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