Are they always listening?
Few months ago, I saw a video talking about a creepy thing: Google is listening to userโs speaking when using google.
Video:ย Is Google always listening: Live Testย
This video was from a blogger, Mitchollow, on YouTube. He uploaded it on April 12, 2018 and got nearly 9 millions hits now. In the video, the blogger compared the website pages when using Google Chrome to the same website but after talking about dog toysย while the browser was closed, showing that the side advertisement on the website pages were replaced from irrelevant content to dog toys.ย
(pitcure from Bravo Net Solution: https://goo.gl/images/L23mvJ)
Actually, targeted advertisement is not something new to users nowadays. The video was an example of it. ISPs (Internet Service Providers) have been tracking users online to target users more precisely, then increasingly revenue from ads. To prevent potential legal risks of violating privacy, ISPs launch a series of preference settings and userโs terms and conditions to ask for individualโs consent to use his personal information and online tracking. If we think on the side of ISPs, it makes sense to make profits someway when providing free products, and this is why users agree to see ads. The real question is that users have no way to control how exactly their information are used because only ISPs have access to decide. In a userโs perspective, one day he may be extremely uncomfortable when seeing ads contained his released information that he is unwilling to share, and has no ideas why it happens or how to protect himself.
The video โIs Google always listeningโ was not a perfect test because the blogger uploaded another video with few conditions changed three days later. In the latter one, the test result to the question was NO. Despite those controversy about what was the perfect test, these two video revealed the mass public concerns regarding personal data. The unbalance power between ISPs and users has to be re-addressed by laws. Thus, EU, for instance, passed the important GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)ย to empower EU usersโ privacy protection.
However, just like we discussed on the class, how much do we trust laggard legal system can really properly limit ISPs power to use personal data? Besides that, do we really can enforce ISPs to restrict themselves by not using their products? There are people believe privacy released and unjustified use of personal data are not their problems because it never happens to them, so this concern about extreme power of ISPs might me harmless to them. Moreover, there is no options or better options if we stop using current products which may be with unfair userโs agreement.ย
