ETA Expert Insights: The Online Tug-of-War For Your Data

by Kyle Hall, President of PayKings and member of ETA’s Technology Committee. 

Your digital identity is a mosaic of data. From opt-in emails to saved credit card numbers, each time-saving convenience has its price. Companies parse together the most critical parts of your records to focus targeted messaging to the forefront of your daily routine. This may sound like a casual consequence of working and shopping online, but it’s important to take a deeper look at how the data you share is changing the foundation of advertising, customization and online transactions. 

The information is collected from countless sources either by your choosing or via large scale distribution without your knowledge. This digital footprint is collected, disseminated, and used to paint a larger picture of your online profile. The information can range from your day-to-day browsing habits to your credit card number and shopping history. 

What’s the harm in sharing your information? 

The sale and exchange of personal information is a nascent concept and the consequences and benefits of this exchange are still forming. With that said, we have seen some of the more detrimental aspects of data targeting already. In the documentary The Great Hack, we learn about a company called Cambridge Analytica who created algorithms through connective networks on Facebook. These tools focused on hyper-targeted messaging to specific individuals, which in turn manipulated voters and jeopardized the integrity of democracy. The first tool the company used to collect information was an online personality test, the kind many of us have come across on social media. After the tester gave permission with a quick click, the company gathered facts about posting frequency, personality, and one’s likelihood to vote for a certain party. This is one of the more famous examples of how information can be scaled up with focused advertising, but sometimes the results aren’t as transparent. 

Isn’t it better to see relevant ads? 

This begs the question of whether or not advertising is persuasive or it can be controlling. Let’s say you’re interested in buying a new car. You gather information about which types of vehicles you want to buy, compare prices, and shop locations. Due to the competitive nature of car sales, you will be shown a variety of advertising on the subject throughout the following days and weeks as you begin to hone in on the right one. Much of the information will be customized to your online paths, zip code information, and brands you showed interest in, but will this change your overall decision? It depends. Certainly, there are ways media attempts to broadcast deals and project value to stay top of mind, the question to consider is when is it too much? 

Stephen Speilger does a great job projecting his take on the situation in the 2002 film Minority Report which shows a futuristic dramatization of what happens when personalized advertising meets your shopping experience away from a computer. 

Verbal ordering and a lack of authentication

Every year we grow more comfortable speaking to our robotic assistants. Currently, 20% of shopping orders are produced by voice ordering. After all, it’s very convenient to say a command and have an order show up in your shopping cart. The caveat – they never stop listening. Alexa, Siri, and Google voice commands form a nearly omnipresent network of conversation collectors. Luckily, verbal linguistics is one of the more difficult bounties of information to extrapolate data from on a mass level, but correspondingly, they’re the most valuable. The jury is still out on the extent to which these tech giants save and filter through conversations, but the pervasive skepticism to being constantly monitored is growing. 

Password Trails

Password and login information fall in a different category of security for convenience. A business may scrape certain elements of your username, but password data, for the most part, continues to be secure. A major concern is who has access to this information if it were compromised. For example, if you leave your laptop in a public study place or cafe, anyone who logs on would have the same permissions you had when operating it. Besides two-way authentication, there are no identity verification tools that ensure laptop users are who they say they are. Additionally, if your information is compromised by a data breach such as a phishing scheme or remote login, you may have more substantial issues such as bank account breaches or even a ransomware attack.

Phone Apps

Indeed, there is an app for everything, and they help all of us through our everyday activities. Google Maps can show you the remaining time and distance to your next location. Snapchat, TikTok, two of the most highly downloaded entertainment apps of 2019 are free to install, but the cost is your privacy. Of course, to access the necessary data, it’s sometimes necessary to share your location, grant access to your media files, and allow your audio to be recorded, but these common permissions are forming pools of personal data which can anticipate more than your next stop or your favorite Snapchat filter. 

Browser Extensions

Browser extensions are part of your online toolkit and can help you view and interact with websites more easily. They can even help to extract emails and information from the sites you visit. These convenient tricks may help you build out that new lead list, sample a color from a logo, or create .pdf screenshots with a click. But among the comforts of design and extraction are permissions that the normal user casually allows. There are currently sixty-four permissions an extension can request to have greater access to your information. 

Auto-updating your credit card

Have you ever received a new credit card, and automatically your payment information is updated for your subscription services? If so, you’ve seen a glimpse of how payment information is shared between companies. In this case, the benefits and consequences are rather straightforward. Your subscription service is extended to your online merchant account and your card receives a charge, all with the simple exchange of information. 

What restrictions have been made to preserve your information? 

Federal mail has always been one of the most secure avenues to send information, which makes it no surprise that by extension, emails saw restrictions early on. In 2003 the CAN-SPAM Act was created to reduce the number of unsolicited emails bombarded inboxes across the USA. This law paired with stronger filters and the option to opt-out of unwanted subscriptions allowed email to maintain its integrity as a mainstream source of communication. Although, beyond email, there were few major changes created to inhibit the exchange of other types of data, besides highly secure ones like social security numbers. 

We live in an environment of pervasive comfort and subtle subterfuge, trading unknowingly between the two. The best way to fortify your online identity is to understand the permissions, the opt-ins, and the data requests that hover under the radar of online transactions. The modern pilfer is not the pick-pocket you chase down the sidewalk, but the online business you greet with a click and effortlessly share your story like walking through the mall telling anecdotes to a trusted old friend.