Americans have a privacy problem, and it is hard to be surprised by that. Between Ring's now scrapped interconnected doorbell feature "Search Party," the unprecedented backlash around Flock cameras, and data brokers quietly selling away our identities, individual privacy is center stage for Americans right now. The author argues it should be the inaugural Security Bite "Theme of the Year."
Yet despite all of that, a new survey from data removal service Incogni found that 45% of the 1,517 U.S. adults polled say they aren't concerned about their online privacy. The more revealing finding came from respondents who said they have nothing to hide. 58% would refuse to hand a stranger their unlocked phone for any amount of money, 39% cover the camera on their phone or laptop, and nearly half wouldn't hand over their text messages to the government or "Big Tech," even for three months of their income.
The author asked Ron Zayas, founder and CEO of Ironwall by Incogni, what is going on. He suggested that privacy only feels abstract until it isn't. "We take privacy for granted, until it means that someone will read our messages, charge us more, put us in danger or disclose intimate details about us," Zayas said. "But the reality is, all of that is privacy."
Zayas also believes companies exploit this gap deliberately. He pointed out that a privacy policy stating plainly that an app will go through a user's contacts, collect their photos, analyze their habits and share those details with anyone willing to pay would likely discourage many downloads. Because such language rarely appears so bluntly, consumers often keep trusting services without grasping the trade-off.
Source: 9to5Mac · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing