This contemporary age can rightly be called the “Age of Digitalisation”. Never in the hitherto existing history of human civilisation have humans been so closely interlinked. Many call it a cure, many call it a boon but the reality remains that in the present times, everyone has their presence in the digital world of the Internet. The society has turned to this development so fast that in a period of a few decades, the whole historical tradition of writing, reading, working, and entertainment has been revolutionised. The presence of the Internet has made our lives quite personalised. We are now unbound by the choices of others because of the availability of almost everything on the Internet.
A major source of all the interaction and digital footprints of humans on the Internet comes from social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, and the more recent developments of e-commercial sites like Amazon and Flipkart. And from here arises the problems. To give more personalised experience on the websites, the companies take personal information of their customers and tune their advertisements and products accordingly. Many times, companies exceed their limits and exploit the personal details of the users and sell it for private interest. The recent case of Facebook and Google are such examples. Personal information of the users can be a very effective tool in manipulating the people for a particular cause, from buying a product or choosing the next President. Stratis Ioannidis from the Northeastern University, working on developing Privacy protection software says that online behavior gives a lot of details about the individual, from his age to his political affiliation, everything can be judged by the sites he/she visits and the posts he/she likes, et cetera.
The protection of privacy holds the utmost importance in contemporary times because if it remains insecure, our whole social life and individuality can be destroyed. We will not even know and be guided by the interests of a particular oligarchic community who would hold every information about everyone. In that dystopian world, nobody will remain safe.
Nafis Haider