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Privacy and Corporate Giants

The digital age ushered a new dawn in the lives of humanity. The period introduced better and efficient ways of communication, helping to dismantle geographical gaps further as information can be shared instantaneously. Companies such as Twitter, Google, and Facebook have significantly revolutionized communication globally. However, the positive developments have come at a serious cost of monumental privacy violations. Van Zoonen (2016) defines privacy as freedom from the intrusion of one’s private life. Barth and De Jong (2017) opines that privacy is a fundamental human right that regulates social interaction and should, therefore, be respected. However, giant corporations such as Google threaten to make privacy an illusion and a thing of the past.

Other Companies Involved

Even though Google and Facebook are the most commonly mentioned companies when it comes to privacy and corporate giants, several other companies also pose a significant threat to privacy as a human right.  Financial institutions, such as banks, collect several private information from their customers. Similarly, companies such as Walmart collect shoppers’ data in an attempt to derive a shopping pattern.  The data they collect constitutes private information.  These companies store the data and purportedly use the information according to the confines of the law. For the past examples such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal, it is evident that companies that collect private information abuse the data and use it for their private gain.  Therefore, it is first imperative to accept that Google and Facebook are not the sole abusers of privacy rights. There are several other companies in the market which consumers should also be concerned about due to the massive volume of data they collect.

Apart from financial institutions, Hotels also pose a significant challenge to privacy. By nature of the services they offer, hotels collect a lot of private information from their customers. During check in, one is made to divulge a lot of personal information which is then often stored in such organization’s database. Additionally, hotels also have close circuit television (CCTV) for the safety of their clients.  The CCTV often record a lot of personal information and the videos get stored on the database of the hotels. The role played by hotels in the death of privacy came to light with the loss of millions of private information from Marriott Hotels. Five million private information from guests who have the hotels over the years is now in the hands of hackers who can use the information to do as they please. Hotels unlike other institutions such as banks have poor network security infrastructure and therefore is just a matter of time before other major brands suffer the same fate. In 2019, South Korea was shocked by hotel camera scandal where digital high-quality spy cameras were hidden in various hotels rooms across the country and streamed live video to various paying customers across the country. Such blatant violations of privacy make hotels joins the like of Goggle and Facebook.

Are Privacy Fears Founded?

Ann Cavoukian, Ontario’s former information, and privacy commissioner asserted in an interview that Canadians were increasingly getting concerned over digital privacy (Sasitharan, 2019).  Similarly, 83% of Australians are uncomfortable having social networking companies collecting and storing their personal information (Oaic.gov.au, 2017). The two are an example of similar situations that replicate all over the world. From the two examples, the question of whether or not the privacy fears are founded comes to mind. The short answer is an affirmative, yes.  Owing to the numerous cases of scandals that exposed the lack of seriousness with which giant corporations handle privately collected data, it is essential to accept that such companies have not only developed technologies to collect private information but are also lousy when it comes to safeguarding such information

Google and Facebook have, over the years, grown, making the internet a vital part of modern life. The companies, in addition to other giant corporations such as Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft, have developed vital daily products that are integrated into the internet, making it virtually impossible for people to live without internet connectivity in modern societies. Zeng et al. (2017) opine that these companies develop these products from data received through surveillance of billions of various internet users, a move that subverts inherent rights such as freedom of expression. 

The tragedy of the situation is the mammoth size of the tech-companies making it virtually impossible to avoid using their services despite their blatant but subtle breach of peoples’ privacy.  Over-reliance on the internet and internet-based services and the high level of interconnectivity in the modern digital world with the power to control the massive infrastructure left in the hands of a few companies make privacy an illusion. Xie (2018) postulates that as long as tech companies believe that their future hinges on information from big data, privacy will continue to exist as a concept on paper but not in reality.

Death of Privacy

Data Breaches

Although data privacy has, for a long time, been regarded as a basic right, most countries all over the world paid little attention to it since it was a right that, to a large extent, guaranteed itself. However, the advent of the digital age changed that since most information, public and private, were digitized and could now be easily shared. Privacy in an online world is dead because of the following reasons; first, data breaches. Today, the large volume of private data stored by most corporation attract a lot of hackers. These people gain unauthorized access to such information and steal millions of records containing vital private information collected from customers over the years. Some recent notable example includes the loss of over 500 million records from the Marriott international hotels. Secondly, the largest data loss in 2017 suffered by Equifax in the united states (Identitymanagementinstitute.org,2020).

Illegal Data Collection

Secondly, illicit collection data from corporate giants also plagues privacy around the world. These companies have made themselves a vital part of modern life and also heavily diversified, making it impossible to avoid using at least one of their services. For instance, Google, in 2019, agreed to pay a settlement fee of $170 million after pleading guilty to the illegal collection of data from children who used YouTube, one of the company’s products. The company’s incessant need for data for targeted marketing and the petty fines they are given serves to promote such unethical behavior in the corporate world, leading to the death of privacy.

Government Spying

Government spying is also a fundamental problem plaguing privacy all over the world. Various governments in Africa, for instance, partnered with Huawei, a technological company from China to get technology to help them spy on their political opponents. Similarly, governments from more developed countries such as the United States have over the past enacted laws. For instance, the PATRIOT act that enabled the government through its various security agencies to gather private data in the guise of enhancing and protecting the citizens from external hostilities such as terrorism.

Illegal Data Sharing

The modern business market believes heavily in the role data plays in granting organizations competitive edge over rivals in the market. The role played by data has increased the need for personal data as organizations jostle to analyze the data with the hope of finding clues that can guide their next product development or business decision.  The popularity of data has placed a huge price tag on personal information. Organizations with personal information can easily sell such formation to third parties for monetary gains. As absurd as the notion of trading personal information without consent sounds, it is currently happening. In 2018, Americans were stunned by the revelations that Facebook through a contract with Cambridge Analytica, had granted the company access to 80 million user profiles enabling the company to collect personal information from such profiles and use the data to inform political campaign advertising. The company sold personal information they were trusted with for financial gain.  Th fact that both companies are still operational even after the high level if privacy breach they orchestrated points to the death of privacy as it was once known. Apart from Facebook, retail giants such as Walmart have often been accused of using private data collected from shoppers to inform their decisions by analyzing the data to establish consumer purchasing patterns and habits.  The law requires organizations collecting private information to inform the owners of such information the purpose and intent they have for such data. They need to seek consent before putting such private information into use.   Corporate giants have often found ways to blatantly violate such laws by collecting and using the data without informing the public.

Furthermore, the global world is currently grappling with the corona virus. The disease has taken its toll on the world infecting millions of people and leading to the death of thousands in countries such as China, Spain, Italy, and the United States. The desire to control the spread of the disease has also proved the fragility   of privacy as a human right.  Countries such as China blatantly violated their citizens privacy rights by accessing their location data from their phones to know those who have violated the lockdowns and curfews put in place. The measures even though meant to stem the spread of the virus, they were illegal as they violated the privacy rights of the citizens and sets a negative precedent for other countries around the world when it comes to battling the virus. Similarly, Google announced that it would release anonymous location data from various users of android phones to help the police officers enforce their lockdowns and curfews currently in force in various parts around the world. The ability of google make such as an offer shows the level of power corporate giants have over our privacy rights. 

Irresponsible User Behavior

Corporate giants are taking advantage of the current prevalent irresponsible user behavior to violate privacy rights. When signing up to various social media platforms, the last step often asks one to read and agree with the terms and conditions of using the service. The terms and condition pages are often written in small font and contains several pages of documents that have legal jargons. This massive volume of terms and conditions often make most people skip the reading part and just sign to accept the terms. The irresponsible behavior has made many people give away their privacy rights to the corporate giants as such companies rely on such agreement to argue that their clients gave then the consent to collect use private information. Some of the people who sign up to such pages are teenagers with no legal right to make and sign such agreements. Additionally, due to the popularity of the internet in the current world and the effect of popular culture, most internet users regularly post private information such as their location online oblivious of the effects of trusting the corporate giants with their private information.  Most users assume that the companies are ethical and therefore operate based on the best interest of their customers.  These irresponsible users’ behavior has over the years killed privacy making it an illusion and a right that mostly exists on paper but not in reality

Solutions to The Current Privacy Problems

Giant corporations have other years continued to breach the privacy of their customers through an unauthorized collection of private data. To solve this problem, the government should implement punitive measures whose application would serve as a deterrence to the other companies in the market. For instance, any company found liable for violating privacy laws should be fined an equivalent of its two years’ annual profits. Though punitive, such measures would make giant corporations treat the matter with the seriousness it deserves. Secondly, customers should also play a crucial role in the fight against giant companies. Although difficult, they should try as much as possible to boycott products and services offered by companies that breach their privacy; the financial implications of such measures would ensure the organizations change their perspective on privacy.

Technology Based Solution

It is currently evident that he legal framework as currently constituted is ill equipped to handle the current privacy problem. It is therefore imperative that the problem is nipped at the bud.  Corporate giants have grown so big and take advantage that their services are needed by most people in order to collect million of data. Since the problem is s a technological one, it needs a technological solution. Inventors should focus on coming up with more devices such as the freedom box. These are appliances that let users to shield their data from the reach of both the government and the corporate giants. The device let users enjoy the services found online without having to worry what the backed codes are doing to their information. For instance, the resurrection of Project Diaspora, a social media that threatened to rival Facebook without the creepiness of gathering private data should be facilitated in order to s reduce the number of people relying on the use of social platforms that steal their data. However, the successful implementation of the solution requires adequate sensitization of the public who have limited knowledge of the information technology jargons such as the use of cookies to ensure they migrate to the safer platforms.

Canadian Perspective

Canada, through the office of the privacy commissioner (OPC), has an optimistic outlook on privacy.  OPC ensures that Canadians enjoy their privacy without the fear of their data being stolen. The agency relies heavily on the privacy act to ensure the government, through its various agencies, respect privacy laws in the country.  On the other hand, it leverages the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) to ensure the private sector also respects Canadians right to privacy.  Through lobbying, the agency made it mandatory for both private and public organizations to report any breach to their systems. Such changes in law help to ensure organizations take all the necessary measures to safeguard data they have collected.

Personal Perspective

 The future for privacy looks bleak as the number of cases of privacy breaches continues to rise.  The following factors inform this assessment; first, the current death for privacy stems directly from the use of technology. Ongoing advancements in technology continue to come up with applications and systems that promote more connectivity and digitization of records, both public and private. For instance, currently, companies are working on the internet of things. This is a system where most things, including household appliances, are linked to the internet. Such an increased level of connectivity increases access to data that can be breached and also collected by giant corporations.

 Secondly, the current laws put in place to safeguard privacy in countries around the world are not proactive but reactive. For instance, in Canada, the main laws protecting the right to privacy are the privacy act and the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).  The laws try to ensure both private and public institutions respect the privacy rights of Canadians. However, most people who blatantly breach privacy rights such as hackers operate outside such laws and without any care. They, therefore, pose a continued threat to privacy even with the existence of the legal framework.

I think since the government and most governments have openly failed to safeguard privacy.  It should be left to the market.  Leaving privacy to the hand of private companies will make privacy be treated as a commodity and enable the owners of the data to earn from their information. Currently, the laws make the companies short change the owners of the information by either selling or using their data behind their backs.  If the government treats privacy as a commodity, the citizens will have a choice of the companies to deal with based on the privacy packages they offer.  People already know their data is being auctioned, they would rather get paid for their rights than sit in denial. It is therefore imperative to commercialize the selling of such data to make the rightful owners of information get their share than being shortchanged as is currently being done by companies such as Facebook.

In conclusion, privacy is an issue that has raised several debates owing to the activities of corporate giants who disobey privacy laws.  Even though privacy is an inherent right, activities of companies such as Facebook and Google pose a serious threat to the right around the world. It is, therefore, imperative for governments all over the world to amend their archaic privacy laws in order to rain in one the activities of the giant corporations and protect a right that is currently slowly becoming an illusion.