There is a reason it is called personal data… that is because it is specific to you. It takes one hack of a large company or any service you input all your data into to ruin your life. Yes, it is very unlikely that you will be the one to get hacked that doesn’t mean you can’t or won’t be. If that data or the database get leaked then anyone can have access to it. That means if you have an ex or someone who wants to ruin your life, they have all the information they need to do it. The bad actor could take that information and use it to open credit cards or buy very expensive items in your name etc. The fact that they have every lick of information about who you are then that could make it hard for you to prove that you didn’t make those purchases.

One of the other things that could happen is sites like Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok could feed you information and turn you against a certain group of people. They have all the information about who you are and what you like it’s not a stretch for them to feed you a piece of certain information. They already filter your feed for items that you would like but that’s more hands-off and doesn’t feed you a certain type of information that you don’t already like. Some of these sites might already know you more than you know about yourself.

It isn’t a stretch to think that a government could use that data to see what type of person you are. Why is that not a stretch? China already does that. The Chinese government already has a hand in all the companies that are in China. The government could determine where you live, eat, work, or travel. This is all based on what you do and says on social media or the internet in general. Imagine wanting to move to a better place in the city but when you go to the bank you get denied because you posted anti-government rhetoric on social media or in a private chat with a friend. If everyone decided that no I will not upload every thought and image from my life to the internet then the government could not have control at all. If there is no data there to control people then you can’t control the people whose data that is. Imagine having to think about everything you post online and how it will affect your social score and what you can get. We already have a social score but it’s all tied to the services we use. You have some type of ranking on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. and that might base on how people interact with you.

Think about if any of the websites online wanted to target specific people and bring them down, they could do that without much work. Look at the NSO leaks with Pegasus. Now imagine that NSO is Google and they decide that anyone who says something anti google needs to go away forever that could be a snap of a finger for them and they are gone.

NSO leaks

I don’t hate Facebook, Google, Instagram, or any of the services. I hate the fact that they do not care about the users and the data those users provide. They also don’t make users think that their data is private. Users who use that platform see that “oh I can get more personalized stuff by providing x y z” but don’t think about what could happen if x y z gets out. All the companies say is “hey you get better results with x y z” and not “you will get better results with x y z but that also means you are handing over very personal information”.

If you got nothing to hide because you have done nothing wrong then send me all your data so I can make sure you are telling the truth. If you say no to this then you should be saying no to companies online.

Here are some more readings on why you should care about your privacy rather than giving it out so willy-nilly: