Recently, at WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) 2024, Tim Cook (CEO of Apple) announced “Apple Intelligence”. It will be a personalized assistant created with the partnership of Apple and OpenAI for iPhone and Mac users.
To this, Elon Musk (Owner of Tesla), who threatened to ban the iPhone due to data security, said “Apple has no clue what's actually going on once they hand your data over to OpenAI.”
This raises a very important question,"Is the current data privacy provided by tech giants a dream or a dud?”
The debate about tech giants improving society or not is an ongoing one. Some claim that these tech innovations have improved the quality of our lives. In contrast, others consider these giants as capitalist machines turning gears to make more money out of their customers.
There have also been some serious allegations made by the commentators in the past against these giants. In fact, Tristan Harris, Co-Founder of the Center for Humane Technology once quoted, “None of the most powerful tech companies answer to what’s best for people, only to what’s best for them.”
Of all the issues raised by people around the world, the dream of selling data privacy has been a consistent one. Contrarily, events related to data theft, unauthorized data usage, data leaks, etc., have appeared time after time in a pattern.
So, to provide you with a balanced perspective, we have shared our opinion on the privacy dud or dream that is often sold to people.
Do the Tech Giants Really Care About Their Customers?
No one can be proven guilty until there is substantial proof to support that idea. However, many tech giants like Meta, Google, etc., often face allegations of collecting user data.
In fact, many people claim that the “initial device access” provided during app installation is often leveraged by these tech giants to sell targeted services to them. And, to some extent, it is true because a lot of people have reported seeing targeted ads for a product that they were talking about. And the mic had no access to record audio during that time.
However, the actual issue occurs when this data is leaked or used by these companies without authorization to keep the customers hooked or generate more revenue. So maybe these tech giants are protecting our private data from external intrusion.
So yes, these tech giants are protecting our private data from other companies but there’s another big question - is the data safe from them?
Catering to this narrative, many directors have made documentaries like “The Great Hack”, “The Social Dilemma”, and more streamings on platforms like “Netflix” that give light on similar incidents.
Apart from these, there have been many popular incidents that paint the opposite picture of tech giants claiming to safeguard your data:
- Facebook’s Privacy Pivot (2000-2020s): Mark Zuckerberg has always emphasized the control of users over their data. But as the tech giant grew, Facebook loosened its privacy setting and prioritized collection of data for targeted advertising also known as “The Cambridge Analytica Scandal (2018)”.
- Google’s “Don’t Be Evil” (2000s-2018): “Don’t Be Evil” was Google’s unofficial motto. It represented user privacy and ethical practices but data collection practices and dominance in online advertising proved otherwise. In fact, even the removal of this company code was witnessed in 2018 as a symbolic shift.
- Google’s Continued Location Tracking (2019 Controversy): In September 2023, Google had to pay $93 million in settlements. It was for a controversy that occurred in 2019. Basically, Google was tracking the location of its users even when the location tracking was turned off. This sparked conversations and led to that settlement.
- Zoombombing (2020): During the time of Covid-19, video conferencing skyrocketed. Around this time, Zoom faced a security vulnerability where uninterrupted participants disrupted the meetings.
- WhatApp’s Data Sharing Update (2021): WhatsApp, currently owned by Meta, updated its privacy policies to share some user data with Facebook. This sparked an exodus of people from WhatsApp to apps like Signal and Telegram. Later, WhatsApp tried to clarify but the damage was done.
In fact, there have been times when regulatory bodies like GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), DPA (India’s Data Protection Authority), FTC (Federal Trade Commission), etc., have intervened, and time after time, settled this chaos spread by these tech giants. For example:
- Apple’s App Tracking Transparency (ATT) Halt: In 2021, when Apple introduced ATT, the feature explicitly asked users to track their activity across other apps and websites. This gained criticism from advocates and regulators leading to a pushback. The event represented a significant shift in user control over data tracking.
- Facebook and Privacy Settings: The Cambridge Analytica Scandal in 2018 led to immense pressure from regulators and users to improve data privacy practices. Post this, the company has to make a series of policy changes and offer more granular control for the user in terms of information exchange.
- Google and Location Tracking: In 2019, Google was fined €50 million and forced to make changes to their location tracking practices. This change happened after an investigation by the French Data Protection Agency (CNIL).
In Essence!
Yes, Big Tech constantly revamps its strategies to secure data from external intrusion. They try to provide controls to users for settings like data collection, data sharing, targeted advertising, etc. However, in hindsight, the majority of the big data privacy changes have been a result of some incident that took place.
However, saying that the tech giants are completely at fault because they are trying to protect their vested interests would be a slight exaggeration. See, no passion project that transforms into a company can run without money.
Yes, using your personal data without consent or using it for a personal interest is unethical. However, the majority of these tech giants have taken stringent steps to protect users’ data from cyber attacks. They have provided more power to users time after time. Saying this, the wave of data generation and exchange at this high volume is fairly recent, especially if we consider Internet-generated data. So, the policies and regulations around them are also fairly new.
IT companies today are motivated by two things: “How to get more customers” and “How to increase their engagement?.” For this, these companies constantly innovate while providing the best features using data generated through your experience on the app.
But, this usage becomes a double-edged sword because it can improve the experience and make money for the app owner but also intrudes on the user’s privacy.
However, the thread to control the use of data is still in your hands if we don’t consider the majority of speculations like “they are listening even with the mics off.” So before installing any app, simply read the terms & conditions and abstain from providing legal privileges to app owners for collecting data, if you are afraid of how your data is being used. This will make their data collection practice illegitimate and will give you a winning chance to raise your voice and stop this from happening.
Sr. Content Strategist
Meet Manish Chandra Srivastava, the Strategic Content Architect & Marketing Guru who turns brands into legends. Armed with a Masters in Mass Communication (2015-17), Manish has dazzled giants like Collegedunia, Embibe, and Archies. His work is spotlighted on Hackernoon, Gamasutra, and Elearning Industry.
Beyond the writer’s block, Manish is often found distracted by movies, video games, AI, and other such nerdy stuff. But the point remains, If you need your brand to shine, Manish is who you need.
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