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Big Data is Big Business: A Growing Trend of User Data Abuse and How to Protect Yourself

May 25, 2018 was the deadline for GDPR compliance. The media was abuzz. Businesses were rushing to update their privacy policy page. Companies were emailing newsletter subscribers to approve updated privacy policies. Everybody seemed to be paying attention to this new law, which appeared to be the beginning of a new dawn in data privacy. Or was it?

The reality is this: abuse of user data has reached such deep levels that even if laws like GDPR are fully enforced, work will still need to be done to ensure that user privacy is respected.

Case in point: in a recent article, it was revealed that pretty much every major free VPN service is a sort of data farm, with a business model of collecting and sharing or selling user data. In fact, the piece revealed that hundreds of millions of users are at risk. The study also linked to a CSIRO research paper that indicts pretty much every major free mobile VPN service in the Google Play Store for intentionally compromising user data in an attempt to make money.

Lest we pretend that this is an issue restricted to free VPN services, let’s not forget the Cambridge Analytica scandal involving Facebook in which data belonging to millions of people were harvested and used for political purposes or the fact that Facebook came on record to admit that it has been sharing user data with Chinese companies including a Chinese company designated as a national security threat by the U.S. government.

If one thing is clear, it is this: big data is big business. And as long as there is a lot of money involved, expecting the government or some agency to come to our rescue will continue to be a pipe dream. The repeal of net neutrality is (Read more...)