ARGUMENT-PERSUASIVE ESSAY
Are the Dangers of Online Exposure Real?
Today, most people belong to a social media online platform. Having an account on any of these platforms requires logging in with certain personal information. Most of such platforms need that users provide their gender, age, email addresses, and phone numbers, among others. Businesses and corporates have also adhered to this trend and created online platforms where service providers and potential customers can have an online interaction. In all truth, the possibility of electronic communication has positively revolutionized personal interactions and commercial activities. However, this advancement has brought with it significant security breaches regarding people’s online data. Most people, at one point or another, have experienced having their online information used for purposes different from what they intended.
The literary piece, ‘Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty’ by Nicholas Carr, suggests that the dangers of online exposure are extensively real and threatening. While most users of electronic media believe that they use such platforms in seclusion, that belief is as far as it can be from the truth. With the technological advancements the world is seeing today, anonymity is an impossible concept in the online space. Once an individual is logged onto an online platform, they have their personal details susceptible to breach by whoever has a knowledge of online data-mining techniques.
The millennial population have the tendencies of using online spaces as their day-to-day dairies. Activities such as posting personal photographs, pining locations, and writing essay-length documentations of their day’s occurrences is common practice. To most individuals, such activities may seem innocent and normal. However, the internet is built such that it collects and records all that information in cookies. Once the internet has all this history of information, it is quite easy to link and trace back from who such data was obtained. The connection of data to original sources is timeless, and therefore, can be done years after the information was posted or deleted.
It is true that the internet has made life easier. From the comfort of one’s living room, they can have food, clothing, and even pharmaceutical supplies delivered. Today, people do not have to go to school to receive education, all these essential services have been availed to us online. During this process, personal information such as user names, IP addresses, and credit card numbers can fall into unauthorized hands. The providers of such services, however, care less about the erosion of personal privacy of consumers of such services. For businesses, the ultimate goal is to make profits and remain relevant and competitive in their respective markets.
Crooks and online data hackers possess powerful tools that mine and collect online data. Data-mining software are readily available to learn and use. These technological advancements have allowed criminal syndicates to establish interconnections for any type of data, far-flung or not. The more an individual posts online, the more they have their online security compromised. For instance, a university student posts a picture on Instagram of themselves while at the institution. Later, the same individual makes a post on Facebook relating to, but not exactly mentioning the course they are pursuing. Through available data mining techniques, hackers are able to establish an interconnection of these diverse data sets and create an accurate personal profile of the given individual.
Online tracking exits. Updated cellphones and computers have inbuilt GPS transmitters. This software is built such that at any point in time, the device has the user’s physical location and movement. Now, imagine an online hacker has the knowledge of an individual’s physical address, and they can track their physical location remotely. Such knowledge gives strangers the ability to commit crimes such as house burglaries and physical attacks with absolute ease. Other programs such as the Kindle and the Nook, which are reading applications are capable of keeping tabs on what an online reader is consuming even while logged off such sites. Evidently, there is a significant compromise on security of personal information and privacy once an individual is logged onto such online sites.
Online manipulation is another danger presented by extensive use of the internet services. E-manipulation refers to the use of personal information to influence online consumer behavior in ways invisible to them. Unknowingly, online users are coerced into buying and indulging into certain products. For instance, an individual struggling with hair loss with a history of searches on ways of overcoming the given health challenge. After a while, marketers and brand activists are able to capture this trend and avail related advertisements and suggestions to this online user. Therefore, this online user starts receiving adverts and search suggestions relating to dealers in products that help with hair loss. Unknowingly, this individual may end up purchasing the given products without realizing that they have been manipulated from tracking of their search history. Taking advantage of people’s personal online data is the unsafe and epitomizes online manipulation.
Humans are social beings. Despite this fact, they are also entitled to privacy. All people with an online presence have the right to choose what they feel comfortable sharing and what they prefer to remain private. The boundary between privacy and publicity, however small, exits. However, it is apparent that criminal syndicates are out to find and use any of such information to their advantage. However much we try to take maximum precaution with whatever information we put online, there are crooks who once capable, can use a person’s data with or without their consent. Obviously, this uncertainty exists, and is of massive danger.