KOLKATA: You’re chatting with a friend about a new shopping item, say a polaroid camera you wish to buy. A few moments later, ads regarding the latest photographic accessories, including your choice camera, start popping up while casually browsing the internet.
Is this telepathy?
Has your phone developed an intelligence that can fulfil your wishes by tapping into your private conversations?
I think our smartphones are now way smarter than we realize. These can now derive data from your chats and browsing habits, showing you relevant, personalized ads later.
As the CEO of a digital marketing company, I would like to shed some light on this to understand what’s safe and what’s not in today’s digital landscape. And how to ensure data security without compromising a ‘hyper-personalized smart lifestyle’.
Our Phones Are Both Data Vaults And Marketplaces
Today, we store critical data on our smartphones, sometimes consciously and at other times, without any clue. We store our passwords, social and financial identities, photos, digital signatures and several official documents voluntarily, as it’s easy to locate and use them whenever needed.
But there are other things that automatically get stored in the smartphone’s vault without prompting. These include our shopping preferences, interests (wishlists), places we like to visit, cuisines we like, music we listen to, travel destinations, people we meet, their designations, their work and social updates, and the list goes on.
And all these data are stored in ‘vaults’ to be utilized as and when required -
● Some are stored as cache memories inside the system
● Some are captured by apps that you have given access to
● Some are synced in cloud backups where your data gets updated
All this information is constantly flowing through your device out in the digital world and into the hands of data analysts and brand marketers.
And it’s not that we are NOT aware of it. All of us have some kind of knowledge regarding this exposure and we are OKAY with it. Otherwise, why would we even share our stories on the internet? We know that we are tracked, and it’s just normal for us.
We are getting personalized ads, enjoying the assistance that our smartphones are providing based on OUR DATA. Somehow, it doesn’t bother us anymore.
But should it be like this?
Why This Extreme Exposure Isn’t Really Okay
Because our data doesn’t stop at telling the world about our interests. It also exposes our identities to a virtual world full of unknown threats.
When every conversation, type, click or upload becomes a data point, virtual systems create a personalized bubble around us, a profile that persuades us to fall into trends, spend more time and more money on things that we don’t even need in the first place.
We consume one reel after another, laughing and enjoying and suddenly notice it has been hours consuming content that isn’t even directly related to our lives.
Happens, right? Although we think we are watching ‘relatable’ stuff, it’s the algorithms creating such illusions. Moreover, it’s our browsing habits that get those algorithms to work.
Businesses Should Be Equally Concerned About Data Exposure
Besides the psychological impact, business data exposure experiences greater risks.
The stakes are higher for small and medium sized businesses that generally use their personal devices for customer interactions, generating and storing supplier invoices, strategies, feedback, customer information, and even financial transactions.
Tech-savvy business owners and operators also invest in several digital applications for social media scheduling, post and video generation, AI-driven optimization, image-creation, invoice generation, PDF conversion, email template creations, and many more. Everything’s readily available on the internet.
But these tools and web apps use cookies to track browsing habits and store them. Besides, they also ask out consent on their use of data in the form of an agreement. 99% of users click on ‘I agree’ and give consent without even realizing the implications of it.
Sometimes, it’s these little moves that involuntarily risks not only our business data but also those of our customers.
How Can We Control What Goes Out?
Achieving flawless privacy is an impossible scenario in the digital-driven era of today. But you can control it to a good extent by being conscious and choosing carefully.
You can regulate what you share and where by following a digital discipline:
● Reduce the number of apps by removing unnecessary ones
● Maintain a distinction between personal and business digital usage
● Use secure platforms for client or customer interactions
● Store financial and other essential information in encrypted formats
We can always discuss more regarding how to manage day-to-day business affairs without compromising critical data. At Comval, we maintain a restricted data sharing policy even while handling client systems, like credentials and passwords for email, CMS platforms or official website backends. We take extreme care towards data management and security while preventing any roadblocks in business operations.
If you’re planning to implement responsible data-sharing policies in your business, we might be able to help make it hassle-free and in sync with current developments.
