In the middle of March 2020, a lot of us were lost and confused about what we should be doing at home during quarantine. We had a lot more free time than usual. Some people took up painting, cooking, or writing. Others downloaded TikTok and sat on it for hours. A lot of people also took up podcasting. But, with this major shift towards online activities came a lot of privacy issues as well.
During the pandemic, a lot of us had to rely on the Internet or apps for certain things like food delivery or dog walking services, especially if we were sick. So, even if we were extremely careful before the pandemic about online privacy and giving our data out to major companies, it became virtually impossible to continue that in and after 2020.
One would hope that since we were basically forced to be more online than ever, there would be privacy or data protection laws to help us out, but there really aren’t any. Many people believe the problem lies with Big Tech companies and how they have free reign to do whatever they want with our data. However, some people also find it to be harmless, or they don’t really care about big companies buying and selling their data. The truth is, we don’t really know what Big Tech is doing with our data or what they will do with it in the future as technology keeps advancing at this rate. The best thing to do is take precautions while online.
For now, some of the best ways to protect yourself online are to avoid sharing too much personal information online and to always use secure websites, links, and attachments when browsing on the Internet. What is your opinion on whether we should have stricter data protection laws?
Lauren's Weekly Blog 