Shropshire Star comment: Perils and pitfalls of life online
The row about the use – or abuse – of Facebook data is an indication that far, far too late, some people are waking up to the implications of the internet and the way some sites operate.
It is remarkable what is willingly shared online and put out there in the public domain.
Internet users are being tracked and monitored in a manner straight out of Big Brother, with their data potentially being used as a commercial tool or even as a way to try to influence the way people vote.
So when there is talk about a “data breach” where have people been? The internet is one massive data breach, with little policing or controls and loads of clever ways to keep tabs on users’ interests and buying habits so that they can be specifically targeted for advertising or whatever.
The key issue is one of consent, and not any old consent through something buried in small print that nobody reads, but an informed, knowing consent.
Get a smartphone or other device with apps and for some of the things you want to do a screen message might flash up asking you to Allow, or Deny, access to this or that. You think that if you don’t click Allow, it won’t work properly. So you click Allow. Do you know exactly what you are letting yourselves in for?
There are so many ways to get people to open the door on their cyber lives. In essence they are offered an exchange – they enjoy particular services but the trade is that they have to allow their data to be tapped in to.
Search to buy, say, a garden shed online, and see how long it is before you start having adverts for other garden products appear on your device thanks to the smart tracking of your interests.
Facebook is a networking service that has been so successful because it has enhanced the lives of people, kept them in easy touch with friends, and put them in touch with people they may have lost contact with. It has become part of the social fabric of modern life.
A lot of users will accept the logic of the deal they are making in laying themselves open to advertising.
Politicians have been throwing their hands up in horror but it would be interesting to learn the processes the parties used in targeting voters through social media online at the last general election.
What is good about this Facebook fuss is that it has belatedly started a proper discussion about privacy, data protection and the way sites operate.
