I sometimes wonder whether we have sleepwalked into a world where privacy has become something we talk about rather than something we actually experience. For generations, privacy was a fairly simple concept: you closed your curtains and locked the doors. We kept personal conversations confined to those we trusted and decided what parts of your life you wanted other people to see – it wasn’t complicated.
Then came the digital revolution, and somewhere along the way we started handing over pieces of ourselves in exchange for convenience. We gave apps access to our contacts, our locations and our photographs, allowed websites to remember our preferences, created social media profiles where we shared our thoughts, photos, life events and sometimes our frustrations. We invited technology into almost every corner of our lives because, let’s face it, technology is useful.
The problem is that we rarely stop to ask what the price of that convenience actually is, because our digital lives leave footprints everywhere. Every search, every click, every location ping, every photograph and every interaction creates another tiny piece of information about who we are. Individually, these things may seem insignificant, but collectively, they create an incredibly detailed picture of our lives and one that we often have very little control over once it has been created.
The strange thing is that we are constantly told we are in control of our own privacy. We have settings, permissions and perceived options – however, how many of us challenge “strictly necessary cookies” – necessary for who? How many people have actually read the terms and conditions before clicking “accept”? How many people understand exactly what information an app collects, where that information goes (or sold) and how long it’s kept?
Most people do not ignore privacy because they do not care, but because the system has been designed to make understanding it difficult. Nobody wants to spend an afternoon reading a 40-page privacy policy just to download an app that tells them when their parcel will arrive.
Technology has made sharing easy but understanding what we have shared has become much harder and this is where the conversation about privacy becomes much bigger than simply “be careful online” because privacy is not only about protecting ourselves from criminals or hackers. It is about recognising that personal information has value, whether we are famous or whether we are just an ordinary person going about our daily lives.
There is a strange belief that privacy only matters to celebrities, politicians or people with thousands of followers but it doesn’t. The reality is that ordinary people are increasingly finding themselves exposed online. People are impersonated, our pics are used to create deep fakes, we are harassed, targeted by scams and have personal information shared without our permission. Ttry getting a prescription without having to download an app – enjoy the sheer “WTF” moment when you discover that your primary care practice has removed the box where you could easily drop off repeat prescription forms. You do not need to be famous to either experience the consequences of losing control over your own information or have to jump through all the hoops because your data can be sold to Palentr
In fact, one of the biggest mistakes we make is assuming that because we are not “important”, nobody cares about our data, because the opposite is often true. The digital world is built on millions of ordinary people providing millions of ordinary pieces of information which are then combined to create patterns, predictions and profiles. Our data tells companies what we like, what we buy, where we go, how often we need insulin and what might influence us next. The question is not whether that information has value, but who benefits from that value.
We have also normalised something that would have seemed extraordinary a few decades ago. We now live in a world where people willingly share photographs, locations, opinions and personal details with audiences they may not actually know. A teenager can create a digital footprint before they are old enough to understand what a digital footprint means. A silly comment made in frustration can follow someone years later. A photograph posted without much thought can be copied, shared and removed from its original context – the internet remembers everything but unfortunately, it doesn’t always understand that people mature. The binary black and white difital world rarely understands that teenagers become adults or that humans make mistakes; it simply stores information.
I am not suggesting that we should all throw away our phones, disappear into the countryside and communicate through handwritten letters delivered by carrier pigeon. Although, given some online arguments, the carrier pigeon option occasionally feels appealing – wood pigeons are characters and peck on the patio doors to remind me when the peanut holders need refilling!
Technology has brought incredible benefits. It connects people, creates opportunities and allows communities to exist that simply would not have been possible before. The answer is not rejecting technology, we should use it with our eyes open from a basis of understanding what we are doing. We need to start treating privacy as part of our personal safety – not because we have something to hide, but because we have something worth protecting. Privacy is not secrecy, it’s just having healthy boundaries; I believe we should educate people about deciding who has access to our lives and understanding why they are giving up personal information, just as we should be doing in real life.
However, I believe that that we have become very comfortable trading privacy for convenience. We click, accept and share because everyone else is doing it and because the immediate benefit and FOMO feels greater than the future risk.
But perhaps it is time to ask more questions such as:
1. Who has my information?
2. Why do they need it?
3. How long will they keep it?
4. What happens if it is misused?
5. Have they benefitted in any way from my data?
Because once personal information is released into the digital world, taking it back can be almost impossible.
The future of privacy will not be decided only by governments, regulators or technology companies. It will also be decided by ordinary people such as you and I recognising that our personal information belongs to us and that protecting it is not being paranoid, but by being sensible. I believe that one of the biggest dangers we are facing today is not that we have lost all privacy, but we have stopped or are being prevented from noticing how much we have given away.
FAQs
What does online privacy mean?
Online privacy is the ability to control how personal information about you is collected, stored, shared and used by digital services.
Why is privacy becoming harder to protect?
Because modern technology collects huge amounts of information through smartphones, websites, apps, social media and connected devices.
Does online privacy only matter for famous people?
No. Privacy affects everyone. Ordinary people can experience scams, impersonation, harassment and unwanted exposure.
How can people protect their privacy online?
People can review app permissions, use strong passwords, enable multi-factor authentication, avoid oversharing and regularly check privacy settings.
Is privacy still possible today?
Possibly, but it requires awareness. Privacy now depends on making informed choices rather than assuming it happens automatically. Or just unplug from the digital world.
References
Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) – Data protection and privacy guidance.
National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) – Online security advice.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – Personal data protection framework.
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) – Digital privacy and online rights resources.
