Your personal data is no more personal

On 25th October, Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba, along with senior officers of Ministry of Home Affairs, security agencies and Department of Telecommunications (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) held a meeting with representatives of social media, including Facebook, Google, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube and The Union Home Secretary called upon them to take concrete steps preventing the misuse of social media sites by undesirable elements and miscreants to spread rumours, cause unrest.

The social media representatives briefed the government about actions taken by them to ensure the blocking of websites, removal of objectionable and malicious contents from public view.

However, it is easier said than done. Several innocent persons were lynched to death due to fake messages that made round on WhatsApp. Even companies like WhatsApp and others had told that they are helpless to completely prevent their misuse. They don’t have a system which can identify original or copied message.
On October 26, Cathay Pacific Airways has announced that it had a suffered a security incident in which cyber criminals accessed the personal data of 9.4 million passengers of Cathay and its unit Hong Kong Dragon Airlines Limited.
The breach exposed a feature-rich set of private details, including passenger names, nationalities, and dates of birth, phone numbers, and email addresses. The company’s statement for the Hong Kong stock exchange shows that the breach compromised 860,000 passport numbers, 245,000 Hong Kong identity card numbers, 403 expired credit card numbers, and 27 credit card numbers with no card verification value (CVV).

After a study of almost a million programs the experts have warned that the harvesting and sharing of personal data by mobile apps is “out of control”. Researchers at Oxford University led by Professor Nigel Shadbolt, a member of the government’s digital advisory board, examined the prevalence of tracking software on 959,000 apps on the UK and US Google Play stores. They found that 88.4 per cent of apps shared data with Google, 42.6 per cent shared it with Facebook, 34 per cent shared it with Twitter and 22.75 per cent shared it with Microsoft.

Having said this, it is advisable to take extra care of the mobile handset you possess because people can easily spy on you and destroy you with the help of this smartphone. It has an internal system through which people can steal your personal data and activities and use them for their interest.

According to cyber experts, your fingerprints, your personal photos videos and your financial details all are in the hands of hackers. Even the sensor of your phone is not safe.

Social media like WhatsApp and Facebook are spying on you and selling your data. Although there are setting options asking whether you allow your personals details to be shared. You press ‘no’ button. But still, there is no guarantee that your data is secure. The smartphone tracks your camera, calls and messages without your knowledge.