Is your Privacy really Private?

There are three unwritten yet basic 'facts' in Cyber Security.

1) Privacy is a myth, just like democracy.

2) No system is safe.

3) Your privacy is not so private.

So, on the account of recent change in the Whatsapp privacy policy, there are several conspiracies that fly through various social media platforms. And one of the top 'myth' among them is ,Zuckerberg is watching or reading your Whatsapp chats. And apparently that's just a myth. So,coming to our point, DATA. 

It is an open secret that all these conglomerates are using your data for various purposes. And it is such a paradox that people cared about it only when Whatsapp changed it's policy. 

There might be at least some people thinking, they have nothing to do with my data. OK, let's clarify what is DATA. Your data on the cyberspace ,basically refers to the digital footprints.A digital footprint is a trail of data you create while using the Internet. It includes the websites you visit, emails you send, and information you submit to online services.

A "passive digital footprint" is a data trail you unintentionally leave online. For example, when you visit a website, the web server may log your IP address, which identifies your Internet service provider and your approximate location. While your IP address may change and does not include any personal information, it is still considered part of your digital footprint. A more personal aspect of your passive digital footprint is your search history, which is saved by some search engines while you are logged in.
An "active digital footprint" includes data that you intentionally submit online. Sending an email contributes to your active digital footprint, since you expect the data be seen and/or saved by another person. The more email you send, the more your digital footprint grows. Since most people save their email online, the messages you send can easily remain online for several years or more.
Every tweet you post on Twitter, every status update you publish on Facebook, and every photo you share on Instagram contributes to your digital footprint. The more you spend time on social networking websites, the larger your digital footprint will be. Even "liking" a page or a Facebook post adds to your digital footprint, since the data is saved on Facebook's servers.Everyone who uses the Internet has a digital footprint, so it is not something to be worried about. However, it is wise to consider what trail of data you are leaving behind. While you can often delete content from social media sites, once digital data has been shared online, there is no guarantee you will ever be able to remove it from the Internet.

Coming to the whatsapp issue, they doesn't see your private messages,or hear your call. The messages in whatsapp are End to end encrypted, that means, when you send a message, the data is encrypted and it decrypts only when it reaches the other end. So you don't worry about that. Then what is whatsapp taking? They are taking your metadata, that is,at what time the message is sent,from where the message is sent,your device information etc. And this is what they are sharing with Facebook.
The company’s privacy policy says it gathers information about how you interact with others on its services (the time, frequency and duration of interactions with others), some diagnostic information about when the app crashes and other information such as any statuses you set, group features, your profile photo and when you’re online.On top of this WhatsApp may also collect information about your phone’s battery level, signal strength and mobile operator. Location information, when you turn it on, is also collected and there are cookies that track your activity within the desktop and web versions of the app.

What do they do with these data?

They've got nothing to do with my data" is one of the main statements which is being said by a majority of people,on the privacy issue. FYI,all your data is in at least one server which is owned by a conglomerate. For an example,take your Aadhar card. It has got more connections than your LinkedIn connections. So,if i am getting one data from that network,that means i've got your full details from your birth. (Not gonna scare you. So let's leave it). Let's take the information that you are giving to facebook or any other social networking site. All these data are used by these AI to personalise ads and manipulate you. Since ads serve the biggest part of income source for these sites, it is their requirement to engage more time with ads,and for that they have build a a very strong algorithm to show you,what you wanted t see. The whole cyberspace is a manipulation. You are not seeing what you chose to see, but what they chose to see. You are suffering from screen addiction because they want you to. Cambridge Analytica helped Donald Trump to win the election by manipulating more than half population of USA through facebook. 

Showing personalised contents is a positive thing,because you doesn't have to spend more time on YouTube or Netflix deciding what to watch. And that's when you realise these apps have build a replica of your psychological persona, and that's just not good or you. If you want to visualise it, watch documentaries like The Social Dilemma(2020). The Great Hack(2019), Terms and Conditions may Apply(2013).

What i just wrote here,is just a concise of what i read or what i saw. Your data matters, that's the bottom line of the whole thing.