Google Glasses, personalized search filters, wearables that monitor your heart rate and drone deliveries. These are only some of the latest technological development projects initiated by some of the most successful Internet and tech companies today, such as Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Apple.
A new poll by Reuters and Ipso discovered that Americans are becoming increasingly wary over such personal-data collection capabilities because they feel these companies are intruding too much into their personal lives.
The survey placed Facebook and Google on top of the list of Americans’ concerns that these companies can now track their physical locations, understand their personal shopping habits and monitor personal communications. More than half (51 percent) of the nearly 5,000 respondents said “yes” when prompted if they felt these companies were expanding into too many areas and pushing too far.
Nearly two-thirds of the survey participants noted that they were concerned with what these companies are going to do with their personal data that is collected or if the information is even secure.
“We’re getting to a point in society where basically everything’s going to be tracked,” said Richard Armitage, a 46-year-old budget analyst who took part in the questionnaire. “They have access to so much data that they could use inappropriately in my opinion.”
Despite the growing concerns, many Americans remain ignorant as to what Google and other tech companies are trying to do. For instance, close to one-third were unaware of the search engine juggernaut’s initiative to intervene in real-world products, such as appliances, vehicles and phones.
Nuala O’Connor, the President of the Center for Democracy and Technology, an Internet public policy organization, argued that individuals maintain a “love-hate relationship” because they enjoy the goods and services provided but they dislike the fact that they’re being tracked and monitored on a regular basis.
“As technology moves forward, as new technologies are in use and in people’s lives, they should question ‘Is this a fair deal between me and the device?'” said O’Connor in an interview with Reuters.
With e-commerce, search results and social networking maintaining a high volume of demand and astronomical revenues, Amazon, Twitter and Microsoft can reap the rewards of higher stock prices, billions of dollars in reserves and intensified access to user data.
The private firms in question refrained from commenting on the results of the survey. However, these companies – whether successful or not – have said that their customers’ privacy when it comes to its web and tech development endeavors remains the top concern in their business model. Unfortunately, critics would strongly disagree with that notion.
Businesses have responded to this market. An example would be DuckDuckGo, a search engine website that was founded in 2008 based on the premise to protect its users’ search data as well as refusing to utilize filtered searches. Mozilla Firefox offers a “do not track” feature on its browser settings.
Last year, Edward Snowden unveiled thousands of classified documents uncovering many global surveillance programs, most of them managed by the National Security Agency (NSA). These schemes monitor millions of Americans’ telephone calls, text messages and emails. It confirmed what many had suspected since the George W. Bush administration.
