La Privacidad en Internet
La Privacidad en Internet
La Privacidad en Internet
ScholarWorks@GVSU
Honors Projects Undergraduate Research and Creative Practice
2015
Recommended Citation
Alexander, John, "How Technology is Killing Privacy" (2015). Honors Projects. 397.
http://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/honorsprojects/397
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HOW TECHNOLOGY IS
KILLING PRIVACY
John Alexander
April 2015
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Privacy concerns seem to come up daily in the news these days, whether it be
government spying through the NSA or people willingly giving information about themselves
away on social media. It seems as if no one has any privacy anymore. As actor Will Smith said in
a recent interview on the show ‘Vecherniy Urgant’, “I was very dumb when I was 14. See, no
Twitter, no Facebook when I was 14. So I was dumb, but I was dumb in private.” His view is a
common one – that people, especially young people, are being exposed to privacy risks through
their use of technology. Willingly given or not the formerly private information of the populace
is being stored, tracked, and sold to buyers for both legal and illegal use. Though there are
many stories in the news about privacy concerns the general public doesn’t seem to be worried,
or are perhaps too ill-informed to be worried. Is this problem truly nothing to be concerned
about, or is the lack of concern letting this problem spiral out of control?
Defining Privacy
The best place to start is with a definition of privacy in the context of technology. The
best way to describe privacy in this context is in terms of “restricted access/limited control”
(Tavani and Moor 2001). Restricted access means that there is a form of privacy where some
people are allowed access and others are not, so a person can stop others from viewing their
information if they so choose. It is reasonable to expect the same amount of privacy in these
situations that one would have if not using technology. To ensure control over their personal
data, individuals need to have what is called limited control over their personal data so that
they can ensure restricted access. This can be as simple as being able to toggle privacy settings
on a Facebook page. The reason this definition is important is because there has always been a
tradeoff between a loss of privacy and a perceived benefit or convenience. If a person doesn’t
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have ownership of their privacy, they don’t have anything to trade within this scenario.
However, when using a website, the ‘control’ a user may feel they have may just be an illusion.
Even with all of the privacy settings turned on, there is no guarantee that Facebook isn’t going
From both the side of the consumer and the companies that want the consumer
information, there is a cost-benefit analysis to be done. Every time a person decides to join a
new social network, they have decided that they are willing to hand over certain personal
information about themselves so they can easily stay connected with their friends and family.
They pay the cost of handing over some personal information for what they see as the benefit
of being in touch with their friends and family (Ng-Kruelle 2002). A cost benefit like this is
totally up to the individual – a person that is very concerned with their personal privacy may
not think this tradeoff is worth it and because of this may abstain from creating a Facebook
profile.
For a business, the costs and benefits are usually in terms of money, so they are much
easier to compare. These services are generally free and make their money from selling user
information to advertisers to target ads to people that are more likely to be interested in the
advertisement. So the bottom line for the business is seeing if they are making enough money
collecting the information of users and selling it to continue to offer the services they provide. If
the company can get enough users on its platform, then the tradeoff is usually worth it and
As far as a business using services for themselves, they have to deal with many of the
same issues that consumers do, except that their data leaks could be worth millions of dollars.
Businesses struggle with policies when it comes to cloud services because they need to be
ensured that their data is secure. Many software companies are only offering their products in
the Software as a Service (SaaS) models, where their applications run on servers that the
software company owns. This kind of model means that the company using the software runs
the application through the cloud, entrusting the software company to protect their data.
Depending on the kind of software, this data could be anything, from customer data to secret
information about upcoming products. In situations like these, the benefit is getting to use the
software while the cost is the risk of storing their data externally with another company. To
mitigate this risk, most companies have strict policies as to what data can be stored externally
and what data is only allowed to be stored internally, as well as what cloud services users
The restricted access/limited control view of privacy can become problematic when it
comes to government surveillance, because it isn’t always possible to avoid having their privacy
invaded. The Patriot Act was a reactionary bill passed after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. It has
widely been understood as “a ‘sweeping’ antiterrorism law that gave the government ‘vast new
powers’ to conduct electronic surveillance over the Internet” (Kerr 2003). Basically the
government had the power to search through everything on the Internet under the premise of
this act. The only way to avoid government surveillance is to not use electronic communication
at all. This situation is a different set of costs and benefits to the average person. You can either
maintain your privacy by not using electronic communication; or, you can just accept the fact
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that the things you’re doing on the Internet/the conversations you’re having on the phone
could be getting tracked by the government and use these technologies anyway. The vast
majority of the population will choose the latter – much to the benefit of the U.S. government.
Not using the Internet is out of the question for most people, especially young people. They just
accept that they could be being watched, claiming that they “have nothing to hide”. They don’t
realize the value of their personal information, and the benefit of modern technology is so
great that the cost of privacy loss would have to be astronomical for them to stop using it.
because information can lead to knowledge and knowledge is power. Luckily for the people
looking for information, the Internet makes it easy to gather a large amount of information
quickly. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange described the Internet as the “greatest spying
machine the world has ever seen” (Kingsley 2011). It is easy to see why he thinks that this is the
case. Some of the organizations looking to collect user data are Facebook, Google, and the
The National Security Administration (NSA) is an organization that has roots in code
breaking in World War I and World War II, but has grown into one of the largest government
organizations in terms of staff and funding. There are estimates that say that the NSA has
nearly 40,000 employees and an estimated budget of $11 billion, though it is probably more
than that (Verble 2014). Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the NSA was discreetly authorized
to spy on American citizens without a warrant to do so, which has stirred up quite a bit of
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controversy. Though the NSA seems to continuously get surveillance powers stripped and then
later secretly given back, it seems that the NSA continues to spy on people both domestically
and abroad without any public uproar. However, the NSA has been caught spying on foreign
Two other major players – Google and Facebook – have similar tactics and similar goals.
Both companies provide a number of services to users free of charge, because their primary
source of revenue is selling user information to advertisers. These companies have the
capability to track user traffic and are essentially giant databases filled with user information
that can be mined and sold for a profit. While Google and Facebook aren’t the only websites
that do this, they are two of the major players that come up when user privacy is discussed. Just
to check how much Google knows about you, you can check your ‘Google Ads’ settings where
they use the data they have collected on you to guess your age, gender, and interests. This is
the information that Google uses to tailor ads to everyone that uses their services.
If a service is being offered to you for “free”, chances are that you are the “product”.
Your time and eyes are what are making companies like Facebook and Google money. In the
case of Facebook, advertisers pay them for two different types of ads. Some ads are blanket ads
that have an equal chance of being seen by everyone. However, most of the advertising money
that Facebook is from targeted ads. Facebook searches through the likes and statuses of users
to target ads at the people that would be most likely to buy the advertised products. Basically,
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the information that Facebook collects on its users is “sold” to companies that want to
Google does the same thing with information it has gathered on users, but most of
Google’s revenue still comes from sponsored search results. According to ‘Location-Based
Sponsored Search Advertising’, sponsored search consists of three parties: “(i) users pose
keyword queries with the goal of receiving relevant material; (ii) advertisers aim at promoting
their product their product or service through a properly designed ad, and target relevant users
by declaring to the search engine a set of keywords that capture their interest; (iii) the search
engine mediates between users and advertisers, and facilitates that interaction”(Trimponias
2013). So every time a word is searched in Google, all the sponsors who have paid for a bid
every time that word shows up has a chance of appearing as one of the first three searches on
the page. If you are logged into Google, your searches are also tracked so that ads that they
Many businesses use data mined from users to look at consumer trends. Programs like
Meijer’s “M-Perks” have customers register for a rewards cards that often give them a small
percentage off of their purchases. Companies are willing to do this because the information
gained from these programs is much more valuable than the amount the customers end up
saving. When customers register for these programs, they have to fill out their age, gender, and
other demographic information before they receive their cards. The company then links this
demographic information to customer purchases that they use to gain valuable insight about
what kind of customers are buying what, as well as what items are bought together. Customers
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can benefit from this information, as coupons are targeted to them based on their purchases to
As it is a part of the United States government, the NSA isn’t looking to make money off
of the information of the people. The primary focus of the NSA is to protect America from
outside threats, which what they do with the information they gather. While many people think
the NSA overreach with their methods, supporters say the NSA is “serving as a key bulwark
against foreign terrorists and that it would be reckless to constrain the agency's mission”
(Gorman 2008). While people like the fact that potential terrorist attacks are being stopped,
many are still upset that the NSA is collecting and storing nearly every form of communication
imaginable, including phone calls and emails. When it was revealed that the NSA were
recording and storing all phone calls, one study found that 59% of Americans disapproved of
the US Government secretly collecting phone records (Verble 2014). While some people just
like to maintain their privacy, others still are concerned about the data that the NSA has
collected getting into the wrong hands and being exploited in some way or released by a
Hackers are another class of people that are looking to use the personal information of
others. These hackers generally have a more malicious intent than legitimate organizations like
Google or Facebook, such as identity theft or credit card theft. The key difference is that while
other organizations make money off user data by selling the data to advertisers, hackers are
generally trying to steal the money directly from the users. Many people’s objections to data
collection by anyone is due to these hackers, and therefore much of the security that is
implemented is to prevent these sort of attacks from working. When people are up in arms
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about the NSA’s spying, they are upset because of the invasion of privacy and because of the
risk of the NSA databases being hacked, and their information being used for nefarious
purposes.
Should we be Worried?
The increase in information gathering, with or without the knowledge and consent of
the people whose information is being gathered, is definitely cause for alarm. However,
different demographics of people have varying levels of concern when it comes to information
privacy. Younger people, for example, are less likely to be concerned about Internet privacy
than their older counterparts, even though they are more likely to know that their information
is being collected and tracked. Females are more likely to be concerned with Internet privacy
than males, and people with more education are less likely to be concerned (Zukowski 2007).
Interestingly, the more familiar with the Internet the person seems to be, the more
The issue with user data collection is the risk of misuse, and what different
companies have been mining for client data to look for possible health risks, and have been
accused of changing client rates based on the data they have mined. This is different than a
client disclosing their own health risks as the information gathered by the insurance company
may be inaccurate, and may lead to clients being overcharged for their insurance. Another
her father when they sent a “congratulations” to her home after noticing that she recently
bought larger handbags, tissues, and headache pills. While marketers clearly thought that it was
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an acceptable marketing ploy, many people saw it as a clear invasion of privacy and an abuse of
Something to consider when you think of your privacy when using the Internet is how
these companies like Facebook make money – essentially by selling “you”. In fact, Facebook has
been caught showing false endorsements from a user’s friends for products they have been
paid to advertise, and don’t tell you when they do so (Virani 2015). What happens in these
situations is that an ad will appear on user A’s Facebook, claiming that user B recommends a
product to them, when in reality user B has probably never used the product being endorsed by
“them” and has no idea that their name is being used to advertise a product.
Facebook builds an unnervingly accurate model of who you are as a person by reading
your statuses, private messages, and likes. Facebook can also track you on any page that has a
plug-in ‘like this on Facebook’ button, following you around the web outside of Facebook to
gather more data on you. All of this data is being collected on users, and Facebook is just one of
the many companies collecting data. This is scary, because these companies make money by
selling user data, and the laws can’t keep up with the technology when it comes to the Internet.
Users have no idea what the companies collecting data are going to do with it. It is hard to stop
them from doing anything because there are few laws, if any, to prevent the collection and sale
of user data.
The fact that companies are making money from your personal information, and that
there are very few limitations to what they can do with that information, should be very
concerning. In many cases the only thing holding these companies back is the bad PR they
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would get if they got found doing something that many would consider to be unethical. Many
companies are already doing unethical things (or have the potential to do unethical things)
hidden away in long terms of use agreements that no regular user reads. Unless something
changes or something is done to stop it, the whole situation could easily spiral out of control
and become a much bigger issue than it already is. However, there would have to be a massive
push for the protection of privacy from average citizens for any changes to occur. The
companies won’t back off unless people protest, and the government won’t make any laws
organizations services don’t see eye to eye on privacy issues. Users are likely to assume that
their ‘private’ information isn’t being looked at and used by companies for their own uses,
failing to realize that social media profiles are just giant databases waiting to be mined. They
believe that because other users can’t see their information, no one can. Companies, on the
other hand, realize the value of the wealth of information being willingly put places where they
can pay to access it. Facebook’s privacy policy even says “You give us permission to use your
name, profile picture, content and information in connection with commercial, sponsored or
related content (such as a brand you like), served or enhanced by us” (Virani 2015). They tell
you in their policy that they can share your information with businesses, however many users
do not realize that their personal information isn’t just for them and their friends when they
post in online.
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The public’s view on the privacy is usually that they would be opposed to companies
collecting and using their information – if they knew what was going on. Companies take
advantage of the ignorance of the populace to get away with more than they should. For nearly
every convenience provided by a free service, there is a price to be paid. Many people choose
the “log in with Facebook” option on apps and websites because it’s convenient and they don’t
feel like creating a completely new profile. When users do this, they are giving Facebook more
information about themselves. Users need to become better educated on what information is
being taken by the services they use so they can better evaluate the tradeoff of the information
they give up about themselves and the service provided by these services.
While some people have no idea how much of their data is being tracked, others are
well aware of what is happening and choose to be apathetic about their information being
collected. For these apathetic people, the tradeoff between the loss of privacy and the use of
the technology is worth it. If avoiding having your information tracked means that you can’t use
the latest cool smartphone application, many people will bite that bullet and use the app
anyway. To them using the newest and coolest technology is more important than being
private. There is a conscious tradeoff between privacy and services provided that many people
Beyond the simple fact of using the available services, there are ways that users can
benefit from their information being tracked. An example is when there are advertisements
targeted at individuals based on the profile that has been built on them – what if they actually
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want the product that was advertised to them? People could find products that they are
interested in through this type of advertising which is the whole point of the advertisements in
the first place. Targeted advertisements are meant to show people products that they would
want to buy; and when it works, everyone comes out of the situation happy. A similar benefit
are coupons targeted at people based on their interests or past purchases, as consumers can
really benefit from the savings available from these sorts of deals. These kinds of coupons are
especially prevalent when stores use rewards programs, as rewards accounts are just an easier
There are other ways seemingly invasive technologies can end up helping users with
their daily lives. With tracking technology in phones and cars, there are applications popping up
designed to help you avoid traffic and to give you alternate routes around the traffic, such as
the popular “Waze” smartphone application (Jeske 2013). As more technology peripherals are
developed, more health applications are being developed to track your heart rate, blood
pressure, and basically any of the basic bodily functions that you would want to track. This
technology could help detect the warning signs of more serious problems and advise you to
seek medical attention when needed. However, a downside to this type of information is that it
could also be tracked by insurance companies who will raise your rates at the slightest sign of
health trouble.
Some other assistive technologies that we willing hand our data over to are financial
services like Mint and Financial Advisor. These websites help you manage your money and
investments. To use them, users provide access to their financial records, which is some of the
most private information that a person has. However, many people have entrusted their
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information to these services because the value of the guidance offered is worth the risk of
something bad potentially happening to their data. However, there is always a danger of these
services being hacked into, or if an employee for one of these companies decides to take user
information and sell it to the highest bidder. With nearly every benefit offered by any online
service, there are always dangers and tradeoffs that need to be considered – and many people
do not.
making sure you are informed and know what the services you are using are doing with the
data you are giving them. You cannot make an informed decision on the tradeoff between
privacy and use of a service if you do not know how much of your privacy is being invaded.
While it is the responsibility of the companies or individuals to use people’s data responsibly, it
is also the responsibility of the users to make sure that they are not being taken advantage of. If
users do not do their research, they can hardly complain when something they don’t approve of
The problem with the “do your research” method of protection is that many companies
make their End-User License Agreements (EULAs) intentionally confusing and full of legal
jargon, which often make them hard to read to anyone without a degree in law. Companies do
this so that the few people who do read the EULA will likely not understand what it is saying, all
while covering themselves in case of a lawsuit. That way, if someone catches the company
doing something that seems wrong, the company can often point to a specific part of the EULA
and claim that the user agreed to it when they accept the EULA. However, there are often posts
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online that break down the more ‘interesting’ parts of a popular company’s EULA into more
understandable terms. These are the types of websites the average person should be looking
There are much more active things that users can do to protect their privacy that aren’t
simply researching. One of these things is to download browser extensions that can help to
stop people from gathering information about you while you can use the Internet. Adblock Plus
(available at https://adblockplus.org/) is a browser extension that not only blocks ads from your
browsing experience, but also disables third-party tracking cookies and scripts. Websites can
host these kinds of scripts and not tell you where they are sending the data they have collected,
Adblock Plus works pretty well blocking basic tracking, but an extension called
Disconnect (available at https://disconnect.me/) blocks third party tracking cookies and gives
you control over all elements and scripts on a webpage. Disconnect also stops websites like
Twitter, Google, and Facebook from tracking your web presence, both when you are using their
services and when you are not. This extension also prevents you from an attack called
“sidejacking” where an attacker can use stolen cookies to access your personal data.
There are some other extensions and programs that are worth looking into as well. Web
reputation, and will tell you if a site has been reported to have malware. Malwarebytes Anti-
known for being great at detecting unwanted malware and adware on your system. Looking
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into email encryption is worthwhile as well, to protect your emails from prying eyes. A good
Chrome extension for this is called Virtru Email Encryption (available in the chrome web store).
You can simply hit the ‘encrypt’ button before sending an email and the email encrypts for you,
The problem with browser extensions, even the well trusted ones that I have listed, is
that they often need to collect data on you as well just to function. Many of them (like Adblock)
are run off of user donations, but it can view and track all of the sites that anyone that uses it
has visited, even if cookies were turned off in the browser. If someone found an exploit or
security hole in the extension, then data about you is once again in the hands of someone you
don’t want it to be in the hands of. Because of this, the best protection is still to be careful and
to be informed. There are no amount of extensions or programs that can protect someone if
they are being reckless on the Internet. A good rule to live by for watching what you post is to
assume that everything that you say on the Internet can be traced back to you somehow. Living
by this rule, you can be assured that nothing private about you will be in anyone’s hands but
your own.
The issue with the entire privacy problem is how quickly the technology moves
compared to anyone’s reaction to it. Laws can’t keep up because they can take years to get
passed and they are no longer relevant if they ever do. Users rarely stay up to date on the
newest technologies and often don’t realize how much of their information is being tracked.
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For anything to change in a meaningful way there will need to be a major change in the mindset
The mindset that everyone would need to have to make a difference is that of privacy
first, information second. There are too many downsides to this sort of mindset for it to be
viable, because the information is valuable to too many parties. For companies, the information
is worth money. For some companies, like Facebook, the information of others is their main
source of income. For others, the information provides valuable insight into the minds of
customers that greatly improves profits. For the government, the information gathered is
invaluable to organizations like the NSA and others to fulfill their various objectives. The NSA’s
counterproductive to their mission) that the government would do anything drastic when it
The only people that could possibly instigate any changes are those who the information
isn’t worth money to – the users. However, there would have to be some loud voices and some
even bigger sacrifices for any changes to be made. No matter how loud everyone shouts,
changes will not be made until you hit the companies where it hurts – their wallets. Companies
don’t care if you disapprove of their methods if you continue to use their products. However, if
there are large scale boycotts, that will get the attention of the companies and force them to
make changes. Most users would be unwilling to boycott anything, because the services are too
valuable to give up for a significant period of time. However, if there really is going to be a
change the companies need to be losing money, and need to know that they are losing money
because people disapprove of their collection policies. Until that happens, the only way that the
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individuals who are concerned about privacy can be safe is to minimize their use of
Unfortunately for those who are concerned about privacy, more companies are now
using cloud-based models instead of allowing users to install software locally. This is a move
even farther away from privacy, because now these software companies are storing all of the
data that is passing through their system. For example, Microsoft is moving away from their
traditional model with their Office products with the release of ‘Office 365’, where all of the
businesses use Microsoft Office data, and now Microsoft can see all of it with the default
settings. For the near future, it looks as if things are going to get worse before they get better.
Conclusion
A person’s privacy is just as valuable as ever, the only thing that has changed as
technology as changed in recent years is who holds the value. While each individual used to
hold the value of their own privacy, companies now sell private information of others to make
money. These companies continue because of user ignorance and user apathy – people either
don’t know or don’t care enough to try to change how the system works. While it may seem
harmless to most of the public now; as technology improves, it will only get more and more
invasive. The benefits of the technology will improve as well. At some point, the public needs to
Until the point where the public makes a stand is reached, the best way to stay
protected is to make sure you are well informed about the technologies that you are using.
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While companies may try to hide how much of your information they are taking, constant
vigilance can help you protect your personal information from those who seek to profit off of it.
In some cases this may mean that, to be safe, you may not be able to use the coolest new
technology. You need to as an individual take ownership of your personal information and
make a conscious decision on what you are going to share and with whom you are going to
share it. If you do this, you are trading your information instead of just handing it over. If you
choose not to make that trade, then you are telling that company what you think in the most
that the type of spying that the NSA is doing isn’t acceptable. Until pressure is put on
lawmakers to repeal the excessive parts of the Patriot Act and to put new regulations in place
to describe how much information that government agencies can collect about people, nothing
will change. Pressure can be applied in various ways – calling or writing to your local
representatives, signing petitions and encouraging others to do the same, and most importantly
by voting for those who have the same viewpoint that you do on this issue.
Technology, especially in the past 20 years, has resulted in many conveniences that we
enjoy every day. Facebook, Google, and even email are technologies that didn’t exist until quite
recently, and while the value of these things is great, your value to them is even greater. No
matter how many privacy controls you put in place, if you use these services your data can be
viewed by the company that runs the service. Oftentimes, they can do whatever they want with
that data because of what users agree to in the Terms of Service for their product. No one
would go so far as to suggest that we should get rid of these services, but a very critical analysis
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needs to be cast their way to see what data is actually being collected. No one truly knows what
is happening to the data once it is the hands of these companies. Personal information has
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