I work as a data specialist for a large corporate.
This last couple of weeks I had my own Edward Snowden moment.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Snowden
Our country recently had an election. Internet access in my country is expensive so if you offer people free internet access or wifi pretty much everyone will take you up on the offer so this company struck up a deal with the electoral commission to offer free wifi at all election voting stations… so that those who were waiting in line would be able to surf the web while waiting…
That’s really big of them….
…what’s the catch?
Well you have to watch a two minute video from their sponsors…
That sounds reasonable right? You stuck in a queue anyway right?
So they ask you to register… this is where it starts get a bit grey for me… after all you have just had to sit through a message from their sponsors and they made a cool $2 million profit for the day just from their sponsors by the way.
So the registration is to get your full names, email address etc. is taking it a bit far…
But wait there is more…
As part of the registration you have to accept the terms and conditions….which we know nobody reads.
If anyone had read the T&C’s they would have seen the clause wherein you accept and agree to allowing them to install a tracking pixel on your phone, which just by the way can’t even be removed if you format the device.
At the same time that you agree to have the tracking pixel installed you also waive all your rights to protection of personal information and consent to alleviate yourself of all of the privacy rights the legislators have tried so hard to guarantee…
Essentially you give the company a signed blank check to anything and everything they deems fit to do with your data…
Simply marvelous…
A sample of the data that is being collected came buy my desk…
It contains:
All your private details from the registration
All your device details
Geolocation information
Your web browsing activities
Sites visited – time on site etc.
App activity etc.
The company now wants to apply data science to categorize and classify you so that they can package you up as a product and sell you to their customers.
So with you free wifi lunch at the voting booth you end up getting a little more than you bargained for. And the best… or worst… part about it all is everybody “legally” consented to it.
1.2 Million devices were registered in one day…. I prefer to use the terms “compromised” or “infected”
I guess the question we need to start asking ourselves next time someone asks us to a free lunch is…