How safe are you in this digital World?
How much do you care about your privacy???
Chief Justice of India, D. Y. Chandrachud played a pivotal role in recognizing privacy as a fundamental right in India. In the landmark Right to Privacy verdict on August 24, 2017, a nine-judge bench unanimously held that the right to privacy is protected under Articles 14, 19, and 21 of the Indian Constitution.?
On multiple occasions, U.S. legislators have intensely questioned leading technology executives regarding the protection of user privacy, including inquiries about their ability to detect an individual's movements within a room. A significant number of internet users express concern over cookies and the data collection practices of websites.?
In simpler terms, websites gather user data strictly for marketing objectives through platforms such as Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity. However, they do not capture any data that can identify a person directly. The type of information collected includes the kind of device used (be it a mobile phone, tablet, or computer), the user's location, browser type, the referring website, and the subsequent site visited. Additionally, they track details like instances where a customer did not complete a purchase at the checkout and so on. ?
The data gathered poses no risk to the user and will assist technology companies in enhancing the user experience. Such cookies are there even in search engines like Google and Bing. This?is why you would start seeing ads that are targeted based on your search. This means, you may begin to see advertisements related to your search after searching for a product or service on Google or Bing.?
Leading tech companies like Google and Microsoft are equipped with advanced security measures to safeguard users against threats such as ransomware, viruses, IOT and hackers. Yet we see frequent news about data breaches and the personal information of users being compromised . These incidents highlight the ongoing challenges in protecting sensitive data.?
To gain insights into the current cyber security threats and trends, please watch the video below.
Users share huge amounts of data with tech companies like contacts and the data they store on their drive (Cloud). Microsoft’s One drive and the Google Drive is available to non-business users and are an example of ordinary people using cloud storage. It enables users to access their files from anywhere like Photos, PDF files, documents and excel sheets. Other than that, users also save passwords, credit or debit card details on their browser.?
Cloud storage is considered as the safest and most convenient way to store data, because the data stored on cloud will remain safe even if the user’s device is stolen, damaged or hacked. Major tech companies are working tirelessly to safeguard user data against both current and emerging security threats. They are committed to creating a secure digital environment, continuously updating and fortifying their defenses to protect personal information.
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The weakest link determines the strength of a strong chain.?
What if the employees in big tech companies leak user data? ?
This concern is more distressing for users in India than those in any other country. It is because more than 75% of Amazon engineers and technicians are based in India. Microsoft and Google has considerable amount of workforce in India, and they have invested huge amount of money to build their data centers in India. Someone from India may not be interested in informing republicans or democrats about what they found in a word saved by a user in Microsoft One Drive, regardless of how it's going to affect the upcoming election in US. But they are very likely to do so if it is related to general election like the one, we just had in India. ?
Microsoft develops its products keeping accessibility in mind to cater to the needs of people with different vulnerabilities. It might sound very cliche, but I think even the big tech companies like Microsoft and Google failed to address a vulnerability which is Racism. ?
Racism exists everywhere in the world in some form or the other. It is a human behavior where people hate others, which they call Racism in the west and in countries like India it could be caste, religion, linguistic ego or even the political ideology. Let’s call this human behavior as “Racism”, because there is no perfect word to describe this hatred and discrimination that makes people do things which are crazy. ?
In India, parents kill their children for marrying from a different caste and they call it honor-killing. Motivated by this hatred, political leaders use words which are anti-national, and people burn national flag. Other than that, there are various reasons due to which people in India engage in targeting someone’s life and livelihood.?
For instance, journalists are frequently at risk worldwide. Consider a prominent Indian journalist investigating a politically motivated homicide. The nature of his work could put his life in danger. His investigation, which involves covert visits to various locations pertinent to the story, could span several days or even weeks. If he chooses to store his data on cloud services like Microsoft or Google, and if he is under surveillance, then this could potentially endanger his life. In India, Right to Information Activists constantly face looming threats. It’s difficult to guess the potential consequences for such an activist who opts to store data on cloud platforms like Microsoft or Google, especially if they are subject to surveillance. The same is the consequence, if employees of big tech companies can read emails and have access to contacts of users. ?
Both Microsoft and Google say that their engineers can access drives where users store their data. Google says only limited employees can access user’s drive, which helps them monitor employees. On the other hand, Microsoft says that their employees can access the drive only with a manager’s permission. This is what they call “separation of duties”. This also means a manager may have the authority to erase log records and may decide to forgo implementing countermeasures in response to violations.?
At least the paid users should have the option in their Admin Console to toggle access for provider’s (Microsoft or Google) employees. There is a need for legislation that mandates service providers such as Google and Microsoft to empower users with control over access to their drive. ?
Big tech companies that provide businesses with data privacy guarantees such as protection of browsing history, chat history when using generative AI, and seeks permission to record calls when users raise a ticket for help?should apply the same principle of user consent when accessing other forms of user data. This includes seeking permission to access a user's cloud storage and drive before doing so.?
All paid users of Microsoft and Google are organizations, Solo-pruners, and freelancers. They use it for business purposes. All products offered in Microsoft office 365 and Google Workspace are after beta testing and bug squashing. All the paid users will have someone to deal with technical issues. Providers like Microsoft and Google can get user insights to improve products and service without a human having access to user’s Drive, email or contacts. If there is a legitimate need, the service provider can ask users to allow access to their engineers.?