Technological Convenience and Data Privacy: An Oxymoron

Technological convenience refers to tools and services that have brought in the much-needed convenience to our daily lives. However, all these smart tools and devices that understand our needs and desires work based on the data extracted from us, compromising our privacy.

Advanced smart software systems and devices implement complex algorithms under the hood that process our data to serve us with customized offerings. These tailor-made solutions have made technology accessible to the masses.

Although these tools have made our lives comfortable, they come with a cost. All these software and smart devices process huge amounts of data collected from us with or without consent. These could range from a browser recording our search to show relevant advertisements to a fitness tracker that continuously monitors our activities and tracks real-time geographical location to provide health insights. Storing such a large amount of data, especially personally identifiable information, on one server could lead to cyber attacks, and security threats. An example is the recent ransomware attack on ICICI Bank, where lakhs of customer data have been compromised.

Policymakers across the globe have also started realizing the importance of data privacy and are introducing new laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) of the European Union, which set guidelines for companies on data collection and processing. These laws, however, remain an eyewash at present but are expected to become better in the years to come. This leaves the decision to the users on how much data they wish to share by understanding that convenience and privacy have a narrow sweet spot, crossing which will only lead to a trade-off that can have severe consequences.