This month, it was discovered that Ring – an Amazon-owned company- has allowed unfettered access to the videos that its doorbell cameras were recording. No user had ever given access to something like this.

Combined Ring’s news with the news that our cell phone carriers were selling our locations to bounty hunters and other entities without our permission, and it seems like our privacy is really all but gone.

We are now sold to the highest bidder whether we wanted to be or not. Our privacy is not ours anymore.

Living in the Digital Life

Twelve years ago this week, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone. It was a technical marvel. Each interaction added to the ability of the iPhone.

“The phone has replaced your digital camera. You don’t have a separate one anymore. It’s replaced your video camera. It’s replaced your music player. It’s replaced all of these different devices,” Cook said. “And so arguably the product is really important. And we’ve found that people want to have the most innovative product available and with that, it’s not cheap to do.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/18/apples-tim-cook-explains-expensive-prices-of-iphone-xs-and-xs-max.html

The iPhone is not alone in that it has replaced all of these things. Not only do these phones and other devices know us, but they are constantly trying to collect data about our lives. That would be all well and good if they were trying to improve our lives with that data, not make a profit off of it.

The more information we give them the easier our lives seem to get it. But, is that a good thing?

What does our data cost

Personally, it’s hard for me to imagine why the data of my mundane life matters. I’m not happy that someone is making money off of my data, and I’m not getting any part of it or any say for that matter. But the data about where I’ve been and what I’ve bought doesn’t really mean as much to me as it does to them.

Ads, like the ones on this site, target you. Companies inspect what you look at and what you buy, maybe even what you talk about with your friends, and put ads in places, hoping that you’ll click them. While this is scary, and I don’t really want someone looking over my shoulder, I would much rather get ads that interested me. I would like you to get ads about what you like when you visit the site as well.

What about our location data or videos of us entering our own houses. We use the location data to find out where our friends are on the map, get driving directions, provide drive conditions on our way home. If we aren’t doing anything wrong then it shouldn’t really matter?

But what if we are targeted by the wrong person? What if someone paid to get our location data to find out that we aren’t home? Maybe they used the video to stalk our house. Then violently break in and rob us.

Hopefully that never happens. But with our data for sale, who is to say that can’t happen?

What can be done

Since the news leaked that our location data was for sale by carriers, they have all pledged to not sell our locations anymore. That’s a good start, but how can we trust them?

T-Mobile appeared front and center in the location data “scandal.” Yet, it seems to go against everything they present to the customer. Just yesterday, they announced a new feature to help protect customers from Spam calls. I don’t trust them, but they seem to do more for their customers than any of the other major carriers.

There doesn’t seem to be many options, but to go all Henry David Thoreau and to go and get off the grid. Cast out society and live simply.

I don’t think that’s an option for most.

You could turn your phone off and hope that you don’t miss a call. As soon as you turn the phone on though, you’re caught again.

The Companies

The carriers need to do right by the customer, but the almighty dollar will never let that happen. They will sell us out in a minute to make a buck. Plus, if they were to stop selling our data the price of usage will go up to compensate for it.

I’m not calling for regulation. Government isn’t any better than the rest of them. I’m calling do them to be honest with us and give us options.

One reason I’ve really loved Apple lately comes from its stance on privacy. They view that your data is yours and that you should be the one in control of it. Many iterations ago, Apple put in place a system to make sure that you were in control of the data that came through your phone. You have to give apps access to your location data or your photos. The thing is, Apple can’t control what the other companies do with the data they mine from you. They don’t need permission to get your data from the phone when they can use the data from the towers.

I would like more front facing features for privacy from the carriers. It would be too much to ask them to copy Apple’s style in their apps that lets us turn on and off what data they do collect from us. Maybe they could even pass on the dollar to those that don’t mind being tracked.

Wrap up

We will never stop being a money produce commodity to these companies. We need to continue to be suspicious and keep an eye on what they do, but we also need to hold ourselves accountable. Money drives the world, and companies will always try to make money off of us.

We need to demand more clarity from the carriers and anyone that would have our data.