You are probably wondering how something can show up on your social media’s timelines just as soon as you said it to someone. Alternatively, when you are shopping online and a product you have been eyeing for days suddenly appears. This begs the question – just how much do your devices know about you?
Devices, especially mobile ones like cell phones are an essential part of our everyday life. We use them to text someone, make calls, browse the Internet, calculate spending, your health and track location, among many other uses. Essentially, such devices have also become part of ourselves now.
In fact, there are already 3.5 billion smartphone users worldwide, projecting to grow to up to 3.8 billion this year, according to a report by Statista. This just shows that a significant portion of the world population sees that devices are now essential in everyday living.
In addition, people also tend to trust their devices too much for their daily activities. Ranging from private files, sensitive information, up to our passwords, we are letting our phones manage and handle all of that, utilising the convenience these devices offer.
With that, CSA looks inside your smart devices and the data or information they are processing, to know just how much your devices know about you. This can also serve as a guide to properly use your device and to realise just how much you should trust them.
Sensitive Data – We use our devices to do monetary transactions and as such, they are also storing sensitive data including credit card credentials, social security numbers, billing information and bank statements. Users also utilise the autofill function of devices for convenience, hence the data is really in the system unless you memorise all of your credentials.
Passwords – How many social media accounts do you have? Whether they are Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram and messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram, your passwords are stored within your phones. Users may opt for a master password for all of them but typically use the password suggestions in browsers. Such passwords are effective but difficult to memorise and recovering them can be a challenge if your device is lost or stolen.
Private Files – Everything you save to your phone, record or take with your cameras are all stored in your phone – and if deleted or even removed in the trash or bin can still be recovered. In the absence of physical storage space overwriting or shredding, your private files are still at risk.
History and Location – Your phone is probably synced with the cloud, and every activity you do is recorded and stored. If you visit a webpage, your information such as IP address is automatically sent to your ISP, to the site and to whatever third-party apps you are not aware of. In addition, you are always being tracked unless if you have a VPN or other measures in place, as even with GPS off you can still be located through your online activities, ISP and other factors.
Contacts and Other Connected People – From call and text logs, your address book and emails to every connection you have to other people, your phone probably has that information. With such data, you can be analysed by various external parties even without your personal information.
All this data is used by the platforms you are using or your ISP for various purposes, with ad-targeting as one of the top reasons. These information and data are probably the answer to your question whenever you are wondering how a particular thing ended up to your screen. You might even say “Wow, why does my phone know so much about me?”
We can explain these circumstances with the personal information and data that reflects your habits and preferences stored in your mobile phones. For example, when you think of buying an item, say a laptop, you may search about the latest models or the most affordable brands. The data about your online activities is then processed by your browser, which they will sell to advertisers to show their products.
Such ads can show on social media platforms, browsers and even your media players – essentially following you wherever you go online. Companies explain this by saying these data are just used to improve your user experience based on your online activities.
The question now is - are you willing to trust your device with this data if it means making your life easier?
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