DATA GUARD DUPE

SMART devices can make their users feel they have access to the world at the tips of their fingers.

However, a recent survey indicates that many young students do not realise that these gadgets can also be gateway for the world to access their personal data.

According to the results of one exercise, here in Pakistan, 83 percent of the sample size of 500  university students were unaware of that data on smart devices can be obtained by service providers and software companies who share this information with third parties.

Ironically, in many cases the users themselves unwittingly give permission for them to do so by paying scant attention to consent forms before they agree to them.

It does not help that the privacy policies of some of the most popular social platforms are, arguably by design, 9,000 words or longer.

The negative implications  of  smart technology are making themselves felt in ways not foreseen until now.

Inadequately protected  personal information can be used for   data mining by marketing companies, research organisations, etc, sometimes to serve blatantly unethical, even illegal ends.

The honor and serving of the ;latest global operational research on Data and Privacy, continues. The World Students Society thanks The Dawn Editorial Board.