Ahmed Shaami
Whenever we sign up for websites such as Facebook, Google, Gmail, Yahoo
etc. you agree with their “Terms and Conditions” and “Privacy Policy“. This agreement states that by agreeing to their conditions, we give them a right to use our information for better targeting of advertisements.
These companies do a great job while securing their user’s data against everyone else on the web except for themselves. Even though these companies claim that they keep strict policies about the user’s data and nothing is revealed except for court’s legal processes but that perhaps, is not always the truth.
However, programs such as NSA, XKEYSCORE revealed by Edward Snowden have disclosed that these companies leak customer data to NSA which is further processed. As information nowadays is digital, it’s 0’s and 1’s, which once used to be something on piece of paper.
“Internet has made it easier for Governments to take control of our minds”.
Nowadays, we are more honest to the search engines than our spouses, friends etc. The search engines know more about us than anyone, our interests, our likes, our dislikes etc. Therefore, disabling the “Check” option as in picture below from WhatsApp would prevent your data from being disclosed. Well, my answer is it does not stop. Let me tell you why I think so..
If you believe that a company invests and spends billions of dollars in building the infrastructure, paying electricity bills and giving salaries would allow you to enjoy everything for free, then I think you are mistaken.
Also See: Rafay bags $5,000 for identifying browsers spoofing flaw.
We do not pay anything for using Google Search, for utilizing Google Drive, Gmail, Facebook, and WhatsApp. A Company, investing so heavily on their infrastructure would eventually go bank corrupt if they don’t have any rewards to reap.
It turns out that, nothing is free on the internet, there is no free lunch.
People generally come up with the argument that when they have nothing to hide, why would they be afraid? The question is, if they have nothing to hide and if they are not willing to keep secrets then how we can trust such organizations with our personal text and calls information?.
I will leave you with thoughts to ponder about this serious issue, are you safe online?
This is guest article by Abdul Rafay Baloch
Rafay Baloch is the first Pakistani ethical hacker to get international news recognition for his amazing work. He is a information security expert and evangelist. He is listed as `Top 25 threat seekers of 2014` and `The 15 Most Successful Ethical Hackers WorldWide` by SCmagazine for the issues he uncovered with Android. Checkmarkx has listed Rafay Baloch as `Top 5 Ethical Hackers Of World`.
