I am willing to share my privacy with Google.
Can you imagine that someone knows where you are, who you are and what you are doing now on the other side of the world? Probably you are already aware of that. Then, how do you feel? Are you okay with that?
Obviously, whenever we come up with some new and innovative ideas and discuss its feasibilities, we cannot ignore the issues of Privacy. This is true that all of us are recognising that there is no choice but to share my own information in order to make the best use of a personalised service which works for me. For instance, body-attached devices for health tracking which are revolutionary services that allow people to prevent unexpected health problems encounter the privacy concerns that the third part person is recording and owning the personal information whether it is legal or not.
The reason privacy issues are constantly on the agenda is because of its intertwined relevance with ‘Data’ which is regarded as a future ‘Oil’. The personal data given by users is considered as a valuable commodity in the market(Matsakis, 2019). The data owners who legally possess the data of people are able to re-process and re-sell it to create revenues. Because of that, data plays a crucial role in the modern market.
Before going through the complex relationship between sharing data and protecting privacy, we should clarify the reason why data is able to be sold. I would say that single data has great potential to generate multiple information. Data exist in a raw form which could be meaningless, but when it transforms into certain information, it gets a ‘meaning’. This ‘meaning’ means it became helpful and valuable(Bellinger, Castro, Mills., 2004).
You may wonder how your miscellaneous data could become meaningful information for whom unless they are bad villains who seek an opportunity to threaten my life. One of the biggest demanders of your information might be corporations, marketers, investors, and individuals who would like you to connect with their businesses. In fact, American companies have spent over $19 billion in 2018 acquiring and analyzing consumer data, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau(Matsakis, 2019). On the other hand, our data can be utilised for social good as well. Researchers who study about humanity tend to approach the data from social media posts to understand human behaviours and thoughts(Matsakis, 2019).
If so, do you really think that the beneficiaries of your date are only whom from outside?
Whenever I access some articles from blogs and news websites, I encounter the small pop up alert, saying “Accept Cookies and Privacy Policy?”
Wait, firstly, let you know what Cookies are.
To be honest, I had no idea what the Cookies are, although I come across with them hundreds of times even in a single day. I believe that others are not different from me. Or some people who already know what it is might acknowledge the fact that they cannot escape from the swamp of cookies if they want to access the information they need.
Maybe, nowadays we are either ignoring or overlooking the situation that we keep sharing our information without guarding. But Cookies are everywhere and inevitable, which is an understandable situation of blind acceptance.
According to the research, surprisingly, over 40 per cent of the internet users do not immediately change default passwords given by the vendor, which makes their information vulnerable and be easily approached by strangers(Bradley, 2019). No way.
We have been heard that billions of online baking service users have experienced data breaches in the past few years. So, we can assume that people will become more careful about protecting their data by using credit monitoring services. However, it turns out only 37 per cent of them is using those services(Bradley, 2019). What is 63 per cent doing at the moment? Are they think ‘That wouldn’t happen to me because I am such a lucky person!’ or ‘That’s bad… there’s nothing that I can handle. All I can do is just letting it go’? Sadly, by another research, “one third don’t think they can control as an individual user how companies collect and manage personal information(Bradley, 2019)”, which means they believe all they can do is just pray for their luck.
Some of the users are reluctant to give their information to the service provider to gain something they need. But others are different. When I was in the studio, I’ve heard quite interesting conversation from peer groups.
“What are you using for browsing? I am using Firefox but it seems it doesn’t have automatic translate function”
“I am using Chrome because it contains so many effective functions including that function. Basically, it is made by Google, which means that they do care about User eXperiences. And I think when it comes to UX, it’s really great.”
“But it’s Google, whatever you are doing and searching in that browser will be recorded, saved and sold.”
“Well, honestly, I don’t care. In any way, it’s Google, which provides all of the conveniences.”
To be honest, I am also using Chrome without worrying like “Google is taking my privacy and selling it! That’s how they earn money!”. Because that is Google. It seems that people are willing to share their information when they feel they can also take benefits from them. Or, it could be related to the credibility of the service.
Furthermore, when I designed a platform for young homelessness, I could see how open people are about sharing personal information if it can help them. Within the project, privacy was much more sensitive than others because of the user group’s unique characteristics, that is that they don’t want to be labelled as homeless people and there are various types of vulnerabilities and shames. However, we needed their information which could be sensitive such as sexual orientations, residential areas, etc. In order to match them with proper statutory services.
So, we considered many ways that they don’t feel pressured to fill out their profile. for example, we changed the wording “setting profile” into “checklist” giving them a sense of checking your preferences not disclosing yourself.
But, interestingly, when we conducted user testing with the real people from our target user group. Most of them told us that the function that suggesting proper services for me is really helpful so that they are willing to give us more information besides those rough options in ‘checklist’. Furthermore, they also mentioned that if they think this is a reliable service then they wouldn’t skip sign up which is intimidating for them as well.
I know that this is still a superficial thought about sharing private information to the 3rd party has become common and somehow welcoming. However, as a designer who cannot be stuck into present issues, I believe the thing we have to keep in mind is, users are willing to give their precious assets if they can take valuable experience from us. Personally, I hope the security of personal information that each service gathered for value can be enhanced in the future so that designers don’t need to feel sorry to gather the pieces of information from users.
Thank you for reading : )
___
References :
Meingast, M., Roosta, T. and Sastry, S., 2006, August. Security and privacy issues with health care information technology. In 2006 International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (pp. 5453–5458). IEEE.
Matsakis, L. (2019). The Wired Guide to Your Personal Data (and Who Is Using It). [online] WIRED. Available at: https://www.wired.com/story/wired-guide-personal-data-collection/?mbid=social_twitter_onsiteshare [Accessed 19 Feb. 2019].
Bradley, T. (2019). Top 5 Concerns To Focus On For Data Privacy Day. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonybradley/2018/01/27/top-5-concerns-to-focus-on-for-data-privacy-day/ [Accessed 19 Feb. 2019].
Bellinger, G., Castro, D. and Mills, A., 2004. Data, information, knowledge, and wisdom.
I am willing to share my privacy with Google.
Research & References of I am willing to share my privacy with Google.|A&C Accounting And Tax Services
Source
0 Comments