Blog#5: How is the internet a security issue?

 

As we know the world today is obsessed with technology. It plays a big factor in todays society. It makes life easier in many different aspects of life, like socially, learning wise, networking, and the list goes on. Technology is so big now that if it where to disappear, then it would be a bigger problem than the pandemic. Even though technology is great, people don't know how much of a privacy issue there is. Everything that you look at on the internet is being carefully monitored whether it be Youtube, Snapchat, Instagram, or internet browsers, are all being monitored carefully. The internet knows what you look up online, how long you where on the website, how long you've looked at an instagram photo for. YES, literally HOW LONG YOU HAD YOUR EYES ON A PHOTO FOR. The internet knows you better than most of your friends probably do and it is a problem. The reason why the internet monitors what you do is because, all of these internet platforms want you to keep using their platform because when you do they are the ones making the money. On a documentary called Social Dilemma on Netflix, they talk about why the internet platforms monitor their clients. One of the things that they talked about was why these social media platforms are free. They are free because advertisers pay these social media platforms like, Instagram, Snapchat, twitter, so that they can have their content on their platform. For example, early this summer I wanted to buy some sunglasses, therefore I went on my phone and went to safari to try and find some sun glasses. When i was done doing that I went to my instagram just for fun, and as soon as i got on I scrolled past an ad for Ray-Ban sunglasses for a discount. It's not a coincidence that a sunglasses ad just pops up on my instagram feed right after i just got done try to find some on safari. Instagram knew what i was looking up on safari. Which means that instagram and safari are working together to try and get me to buy this product, because if I do buy the glasses not only does Ray-Bans make the money, instagram makes money to because they helped promote there product. That's why they are monitoring where we go online because the more they know about us the more items they can try and sell to us. 

A phrase that they used on the documentary was "If you don't buy the product, then you are the product". This phrase means that if you are not paying to use a social media platform or any platform, then they are going to make you the product and try sell you so they can make money. Let's take instagram for example. Instagram is free on the app store so you don't have to pay to have an instagram account. So how does instagram make money? The way they make money is by collecting any type of information they can about you and with that information, they put together ads that fits the information that they found out about you and try and get you to buy that particular product, and as soon as you buy that product from that ad, you become the product. Forget about you buy the product, what instagram did was that they sold you to a company (which you bought off of because of the ad you saw) and therefore instagram can say to that company " hey, we helped you get that sale by putting your ad in his instagram feed, so want a percentage of that sale" and that is what makes you the product. That's what most of the platforms do. It's not only social media platforms. Why do you think games on smart phones have so many ads? It's the same thought process. They are trying to get you to buy something off the ad so that they can make money as well. In conclusion, this particular technology issue might not stand out to you, but there are many other security issues online that we probably don't know about, so be careful. Be careful what you look up online. Be careful when you send a message on your phone. Be careful what you share online, because everything that you do on your phone, computer, or any type of device is document.