The Internet gave us virtually everything in exchange for our privacy, which we voluntarily gave away with no questions asked, yet we keep clamouring for data privacy.

The reality is that almost all technology companies, at one point or the other, are collecting our data and we are happy with it.
The government is also not left out in the harvesting of our information at will.
Back in 2005, the then US President, George W. Bush authorised the National Security Agency to intercept the international communications of people with known links to Al-Qaeda and related terrorist organisations.
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In 2013, the Nigerian government reportedly
commissioned a $40 million contract to an Israel-based company to spy on Nigerians on the Internet.

And there’s evidence suggesting that the Bayelsa State government employed the services of an Italian-based company, Hacking Team, to
hack its citizens in 2013.

While recently checking out collateral-free loan providers in Nigeria, my loan request on one of the providers couldn’t go through as the mobile app requested access to information from my mobile device which included my SMS log, among others.
Since I am not registered for SMS notifications for my banking services, I couldn’t get my loan request approved.

The recent data breach scandal involving Cambridge Analytical and Facebook is just a case of making a scapegoat out of Facebook.

According to Chris Saad, a serial entrepreneur, Facebook didn’t sell users’ data; Cambridge Analytica bought the data from another company that had built a quiz app that has Facebook users’ data.

Just like the quiz app, we have at one point or the other shared our data with third-party apps, both on and off the social network giant.

The Internet is taking more than it’s giving or better put, we are giving the Internet more — surrendering our privacy for convenience and we don’t even care .
We turn to Twitter for our ranting sprees, post images on Instagram and Snapchat with our locations, update our friends about our daily lives using WhatsApp status and Facebook.

Fb:NWEKE NNAMDI SAMUEL
@/Techplann
Repeat after me
Data privacy is a myth….
Data privacy is a myth……

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A lot of companies offer ‘disguised’ free services and in exchange, they gather data which is then sold to companies in need.



The 2013 documentary movie — Terms and Conditions May Apply — gives an insight into how Internet companies are getting people’s data and how it has eventually affected privacy.
Social Lender, a collateral-free loan provider, uses social media to determine people’s creditworthiness. And just recently, it was reported that the United States will start using social media history as part of its vetting exercise for visa application processes.

No doubt, data is the future but at what cost?

Corporations like the Cambridge Analytical, among others, are holding and feeding off harvested data, and smartphone have only made this more feasible; we are already talking about the Internet of Things where everything will be connected to the Internet.

Service providers on the Internet have terms and conditions which we don’t bother reading but accept them. How can we claim to have our privacy taken away when we actually give it up?

READING FACEBOOK’S TERMS WILL TAKE YOU ABOUT 25 MINUTES — AN IRRECOVERABLE 25 MINUTES OF ONE’S LIFEhttp://www.techplan.com.ng/2018/05/22/facts-privacy-is-a-mythfacebook-is-a-scapegoat/