The world has changed a lot in the past twenty years. Twenty years ago, people didn’t have social media accounts, phones, iPads or Airpods. The iPhone wasn’t even invented until 2007. Life twenty years ago is like a whole different era. Most of you reading this probably use at least one of these devices daily. In 2000, no one was using any of these devices. What you’re reading right now was created on an iPad. New technology truly has changed the world we live in today. Tons of great things have come from these devices, but some issues have also arisen because of them. One of these issues that has been a problem for many has been privacy on the Internet. I believe our privacy on the Internet is being compromised by others such as hackers and companies.
There is all sorts of shady stuff on the Internet. A big issue is hackers. Many try to steal our information on the Internet. No matter how cautious you are, they will find a way to get after you. One night I had an issue with a hacker. I got a message on Instagram and it was from someone I knew and when I opened it I quickly realized something was wrong.
“Hi, can you please do me a favor?” said the message.
From this very first message, I got a feeling something was up. I checked the account and their posts were taken down and their profile picture was removed. This was another sign something was up to me. I got another message while finding all this out and when I reopened the messages, I was greeted with a message from them asking me to lend them some money. There was a link to “pay them”. I never responded to the messages and about two hours later, the account was taken down. I’ll never know what would have happened if I clicked that link but I have two main assumptions. My first assumption is that this was a scam for me to give some random guy money. My other assumption is that they were trying to get into my account using the link and use my information for scamming. This story shows how our privacy has been compromised in the digital age as there are people constantly trying to get us to give them personal things. In this scenario, the person was either trying to get my account or they were trying to have me give them money. Hackers are just one way our privacy is being compromised during the digital age but what is another way?
Another way our privacy is being taken away from us is by websites tracking us. Many of you reading this probably have heard of cookies on the Internet. If you do not know what cookies are, cookies are a way websites you visit can collect personal information about you like your browsing data. Cookies track all sorts of things from our browsing data to get as much information from us as possible. This has happened to me before as I was looking at football cards and then I would get multiple ads for football card shops and boxes. This is because the websites tracking you are learning what you’re interested in getting your attention. This has probably happened to you whether you realized it or not. Companies are constantly looking for ways to appeal to us and by tracking our interests, they can find what we like and try to promote it to us so that we give them our business. They can also sell this information to other companies to receive money. So even if that company doesn’t sell the product we are interested in, they still can use our information for their gain. This shows how our privacy is being compromised as there are people who are trying to track our browsing data to find what we like for their gain.
Overall, we need better ways to be able to protect our privacy in the digital age. There are people constantly trying to take our information for their gain. Whether it’s someone trying to steal it or someone tracking it behind our backs, it is a problem. These are just some of the experiences I have had when my privacy on the web could be invaded. The Internet may be a great thing but it isn’t perfect. Remember to always watch out for your privacy on the Internet and stay safe.