I believe that unethical human activity is the primary reason for lack of privacy and safety on the internet. If there was no one out there looking to exploit people’s privacy or abusing coding skills to hack, the internet could be a much safer place. Our safety is constantly at stake when it is all online. We place ourselves in a very venerable state. There are many factors contributing to this such as laziness, hacking, privacy policies and scamming. All of which are affected in one way or another by unethical human activity. Yes, even the laziness but I will explain how.
So one thing that really brings us down is our own laziness. We prefer to click “save password” rather than typing up our password rather than typing it up. This in itself is not unethical, but what it brings about is. By saving our passwords we are basically leaving an open door to anyone who wants to take our information. If it was not for these people who exploit the use of this setting then of course the internet would be a much safer place and we would not have to constantly be on edge that if we save our password, one day all of information can be abused by people looking to do some identity theft or even selling information on black markets or worst case scenario it can put our safety in real life at risk. In the Australian Government Stay Safe Online website (2017) they state that if you save your google password to you computer it places you in a high risk point as google accounts are usually linked to several other accounts, especially Android users who’s information is constantly stored in the google cloud. If one account gets hacked, they have free access to all your other accounts that are linked. Like a domino effect. This is a good innuendo to bring up hacking.
Hacking can be used for good when it comes to police investigation and things like that but majority of the time or at least what it’s commonly known to be used for is information theft. There are several different forms of hacking, one is where someone actively hacks either a computer, phone or account using coding and programming in order to find your personal information and abuse it. According to the Life Education website hackers can also capture wifi passwords which grants them access to any device that is connected or anything that is transmitted through the wifi such as emails. Hacking is unethical as it is used to breach peoples privacy and online safety and it is a huge contributor to the lack thereof.
Scamming is very similar to hacking. It is usually presented as a link in a website or email and when a victim clicks on one a program is downloaded to their computer which basically grants access to any information they have set out to get. Some get account passwords, others collect bank details and some are more advanced and can even grant access to the cameras on laptops or computers. Scamming is highly unethical and invades privacy and also puts people at risk.
Last but definitely not least, privacy policies. Privacy policies are supposed to give us assurance that our information that we place online is safe, right? Well that is not always the case. Privacy policies are usually very long documents with many detailed points. I do not know if this is the effect that companies hope for but this does cause people to usually ignore it and not read the fine print. For example Facebook owns everything you post. Most people do not know this but everything you post on Facebook can be used by the company for anything of their choosing. Our personal information lies in the hands of a big corporation, it is not ours to control in the end. I found a list of examples of what they call “misleading privacy policies” on the Privacy Monitor website (2019).
Another very similar breach of privacy is the “cookies” tracker which collects data from you usage over certain websites so it can then send your messages to social media so they can send advertisements based on what you frequently search up. If these companies are abusing their power through their privacy policies, what is stopping others from doing the same or worse.
At the root of each of these data breaches there is always a person. Sometimes we forget that behind the screen of a scam or a virus there is a person, trying to steal your privacy and safety from underneath your feet and companies are out there breaching your privacy behind your back yet somehow with your consent, all for their benefit and your loss. So yes, unethical human activity is mainly and primarily responsible for our safety and privacy being jeopardised on the internet because people are constantly exploiting these online tools.
References:
ACSC. (2017). Safe or Risky: saving passwords in your browser. Stay Smart Online. Retrieved from https://www.staysmartonline.gov.au/news/safe-or-risky-saving-passwords-your-browser
Life Education. (n.d.). How Safe Is Your Personal Information Online?. Life Education. Retrieved from https://www.lifeeducation.org.au/parents/how-safe-is-your-personal-information-online
Osano. (2019). April 2019 Misleader Board. Privacy Monitor. Retrieved from https://www.privacymonitor.com/misleader/2019-04-09/