Page 20 - Seniors Today - January Issue
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users is confusing. Just to give an example, are also getting into it. The newspapers
WhatsApp messages are encrypted, recently carried a full-page advertisement
but not the backups. To understand the claiming, “WhatsApp respects and protects
import, almost all of us take backups of your privacy.” Great headline to assuage
our WhatsApp chats and content, which is fears, but the messaging in the body copy
stored in Google drive or iCloud or similar is selective and hides more than it reveals.
repositories. We see backup as a necessity A friend trenchantly observed “sounds
for exporting data or shifting out to a new like a lie’ – in a WhatsApp group! Clearly,
mobile. Here is where we expose ourselves, WhatsApp is jittery and trying to do
knowingly or unknowingly, since the damage control. It will be good to recall
backup is not encrypted. The claim of the furore in India on imposing Aadhaar
end-to-end encryption may be true as far on the masses, over privacy issues. It has
as the front end is concerned, but the fact not been addressed till date effectively
is that no user will be able to get definitive and the government is continuing to
comfort or know if privacy is breached at force it indirectly on us, notwithstanding
the back end. The mind-boggling legalese the court’s rulings. Quite simply, data
which one is required to sign off on these is power, data is control – no player or
platforms relating to privacy can challenge platform or purveyor is going to let go of the
and confuse even the best legal eagles in monetisation or manipulation potential of
the world, let alone you and me. If any of data.
you have heard Sundar Pichai of Alphabet/
Google or Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Comfort zones
depose and defend their positions before Over the last two decades of galloping
the US Senate committees on privacy technology progression, most of us, if not
issues, you will realise that there is more all, across the globe, urban or rural, have
obfuscation than clarity in their convoluted got used to the comfort of digital zones
responses. and are loath to step out of them. Talking
One good thing from these developments and transacting from your desk or home
is that data and privacy protection had become an enduring way of life, much
discussions have come out into the public before the pathogen-led work from home
domain in the form of uproar and outrage pervaded our lives. Willy-nilly, the more
in social media, and the governments our digital footprint, the more the exposure
of our personal data and behaviour. Given
our native intellect, all of us subconsciously
knew of the risk to our personal data, but
nevertheless tread the digital highway for
its infinite and invaluable convenience.
As an analogy, all of us may opt for the
Covid vaccine despite knowing that there
could be negative side effects. Finally, it’s a
trade-off. The digital presence is obviously
End-to-end encryption is promised by chat apps, but how
secure is data, really – specially when it is backed up to dictated more by individual choices and
the cloud? conveniences, but herd behaviour also
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