Recent privacy concerns shaken confidence in tech?
It seems like no matter where or how we turn in tech recently, privacy concerns are mounting everywhere! Of course over the past year or so privacy concerns with social media have been on everyone’s mind, however, now with recent revelations about Carrier IQ and smartphone app spying concerns, it seems like even our smartphones which we all love are at great risk for revealing sensitive and private information about us. It also leads us to believe that big companies are willing to hide applications and even lie to consumers about collecting information.
At best, this leaves even the most security permissive persons looking at their privacy settings and rethinking what kinds of information they carry or transmit on smart devices. Where is it all leading? It makes us stop and wonder what is going on in the world of tech and what controls or standards can be put in place to alleviate concerns over information being stolen from end users.
It really shows that technology has progressed so quickly that there simply has not been time to think everything through. Apps and information are multiplying at rates that boggle the imagination. While such progress is indeed beneficial in making our lives easier and more convenient, at the same time, it opens a pandora’s box of concerns about privacy and deciding what to reveal to others and what not to reveal. However, as recent events show, we can’t simply trust everything that is disclosed from the top down. We have to be careful always having the possibility in mind that we are being exposed to privacy holes that we cannot even see.
It will be interesting to see where the recent developments will lead with software that is installed from mobile carriers and what if any legislation might come from the privacy concerns developed recently. One of the upsides we as consumers might hopefully see is that mobile carriers might scale back the amount of bloatware installed on handsets from the stores. That would be my hope, although something tells me that simply won’t happen. Only time will tell.
