![]() Don’t rely on them being too busy to find or afraid to ask. Don’t trick users into taking privacy risks. Don’t hand someone a proverbial loaded gun and act surprised when they hurt themselves with it. It’s time to start treating users with respect. Even the “Private By Default” setting is off – by default. I took a look and as you could probably guess, the privacy settings are off by default. As it turned out, with that information, you could pin point known military bases and secret stations, infer patrol routes and even the location of individual military personnel. This is due to the way computer storage systems work, and the extent to which it can be done varies greatly depending on: the kind of device in use, the quality of the forensic tool, and the amount of time that passes between the deletion. Its location-based tracking manifested as a heat map showing routes taken by runners around the world. One of the most significant capabilities of forensic tools is their ability to recover deleted data. Recently, researchers identified a privacy issue related to Strava, a fitness app. Not being up front about the privacy risks your app presents is as shady as a drug company not informing people of potential side effects. When they are found, they are almost always off by default, requiring users to take an extra step to opt in and often worded in a way that’s confusing so users are afraid to mess with it.Īside from the settings chicanery, rarely do providers go out of their way to educate users about privacy risk or to show how to minimize as they use the product. When these controls are present, they are almost always buried somewhere in a settings menu as if nobody wanted them to be found. Too often, apps offer no meaningful ways for users to turn privacy-related features on and off. ![]() While yes, consumers often give up too much of their information in exchange for free services, by and large these concessions are made by uninformed users who have no real recourse if things go badly and their privacy is compromised. I believe that the developers and providers of digital products carry responsibility. Their argument is if users cared about their privacy, they would make different choices. Why does this keep happening? Some say: buyer beware. The result is almost too predictable at this point – sooner or later, the data is exposed and we are shocked to discover a privacy breach. It seems every new app or online service these days is designed to entice you to share your activity, location, or personal information at all times.
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