We can all agree that our life also takes place on the Internet.In social networks, in the digital tools of work, in the applications in which we point out our expenses or our exercise routine, in the system in which we consult our medical history ... Hence we worry things that did not occupy our head before.Among these concerns there is one that over time is accentuated, and it is what happens with our personal data in the digital world..Is my life on the Internet as private as my life outside of it?Do I worry that?
In Cursuos, carried out a study in which we ask directly about it.The general answer is affirmative: of course we care about our privacy!Of course we do not want our data to be used without permission!And yet, although we say that this matters to us, we have detected a great resignation because our personal information is in the hands of companies that take economic revenue with them, as well as a reluctant to avoid this situation.Also, that social networks create hooking mechanisms that make them out of them and that create concerns about the physical appearance and social capacities of the people.Does it sound to you?
In the study that we explained below, and that we have been able to do in collaboration with the doctor and researcher Carlos Fernández Barbudo and thanks to the support of the Fecyt Foundation, we take a closer look at how that concern is manifested and that need for information.For this analysis interviews with triangular groups, one of adults (between 45 and 65 years old) and two young population (between 20 and 35 years old) were carried out (between 20 and 35 years).The research was designed in order to control the "age" and "gender" demographic variables, as well as the knowledge, use and attitude they had towards digital platforms.
Privacy as conceived by citizenship
Online life is real life, with its rights and responsibilities.However, there are many people who still do not see it.Although we are increasingly worried about how the presence of digital technology in our lives influences and affects us, there is still no collective awareness of how much our privacy can damage.To all this, what would you say that we understand by ‘privacy’?
Privacy is not synonymous with intimacy.That is more or less clear.Of the conversations we had to do this study, we observe that the concepts are separated according to the environment.When talking about privacy, there is talk of the "inability to control what circulates on us through social networks or, in general, everything that is stored remotely" by different companies.Meanwhile, intimacy is related to our bodies or our houses, those spaces that are (or should be) only for us.
Are we aware that using certain digital services or dumping our life on social networks affects our privacy?Yes we are.But even so, what we call the "privacy paradox" is produced: we know that companies exploit our personal data for their own benefit, but it is assumed that this has to be like this if we want to use certain technological tools.That is, we begin to be aware of our privacy once there are problems with it, and not before.
"We are sold and we can no longer do anything to remedy it"
With this revelation, the following arrives: we are "sold" (rather our personal data) and there is nothing to do about it.To live a life connected to the rest of the people, you have to make the sacrifice: “You stay out, and how do you not want to be left out, you have to download whatsapp, and if you download whatsapp, you have to accept the terms.You have no option, ”said one of the interviewees.Another of them blamed the modus operandi of companies and their demands: "I am pushing you to accept my data so as not to be a person outside society," he added.
Here it is confirmed that people are aware that their personal data is used or can be used for tasks that perhaps they would not see well or that they directly seem bad.However, they continue to participate in the mechanism of the so -called surveillance economy so as not to be out of the platforms.This happens because there is also some hope that their data will be used for ‘the good’, that is, that companies do not virguerías with them and less if they do not tell their privacy policy.Where is the trick?In which the interviewees also recognize that these documents are never read before using or installing an application.Therefore, they don't even know what information is used for the first place.
They also believe that if the data is used for something "good" or "positive", the problem disappears.Young people even admit that they are not upset to be "part of a statistic" for companies that collect data.But they are also ambivalent: that they do not care can easily change with the right discourse, which also shows a lack of knowledge about what is really done with our personal information.
Let's put the example we put to the interviewees: that trace the location of our mobile phone to know the sites and locals we pass, and thus place personalized advertising on our devices, it is a bad practice that affects our privacy, according to.And that an administration or government will be used to know where we are at a specific time, as a manifestation, so is.What happens if these location data are used to find ourselves in the middle of the mountain one day that we have lost making a route?In that case, the discussion group changes their opinion: suddenly, that the actors themselves store and use our data is something positive because they will save us.Despite knowing that they can then be used for many other applications that are not so positive.
"While they are data that they obtain only to do studies, for example, I don't care if they use or pull my privacy," one of the young girls interviewed told us.
Generalized ignorance leads to a lack of interest and training in the online plane
From the analysis of these conversations it follows that there is a great lack of interest in training in digital hygiene measures or knowing how the mechanism for data extraction from applications and other digital services works.We do not know why it is motivated, but it is worrying to see that at a time when these technologies (as well as social networks) are so present in the day -to -day life of citizenship, there is so little knowledge about how it affects the lack Of privacy.
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To make it clearer: the interviewed people believed in statements such as "our mobile listens to us", a very widespread belief that is not demonstrated.However, none admitted to what consequences that has beyond considering it a serious fault to its privacy.Nor did they consider that stop using certain digital platforms that extract much information from them, or at least learn to configure them more safely and privately, it was an option.
In addition, there are differences between young adults and older people, above 50 years.The feeling of being "guarded" or "controlled" by multinational.As we have said before, this does not matter.Of course, it stops causing indifference when they can be identified, when they are put face to what they do.Only by noticing that concern, the classic argument disassembles that "I don't care if they watch me, since I have nothing to hide".
Older adults, on the other hand, do have the feeling of being controlled, but their concept of surveillance is another.Is that the government or some administration, or companies like their banks, can know what they are doing at all times and manipulate them.
What we do at all times we usually tell on social networks
And this is where the overexposure of information in social networks enters.This also occurs because, in reality, a cause-effect relationship between the economy of surveillance (which causes customization) and the strategies that the platforms to keep us within the application are not formed.That if notifications, push, sounds similar to bells, infinite scroll, likes modalities, reactions, comments ... all that makes us all the pending mobile and platforms.Of course, this generates more data and more information that involves benefits for proprietary companies.
This is something that study participants do not receive themselves.Let's say that the only thing they notice is the second part, that in which they feel excluded from their social group if they do not use certain platforms and in which they admit that it generates a certain hook and dependence."I stopped using Instagram for that, because I realized that I was wasting all my time in looking at what the rest of the people did": "I don't know what I'm doing looking twenty -five thousand stories," explained one ofThe children interviewed.
Of course, they are aware that there are certain mechanisms in social networks that push them to that inevitable hook.On the one hand, there is the constant attention demanded by platforms through functions such as notifications and the infinite wall, but also has to see the phomo, the so -called Fear of Missing Out, the fear of getting part of the life that takes placeIn that world online.Therefore, they admit that, or follow the rules of the platforms, or you are excluded from your social group, for example.
Social networks promote an exhibitionist logic that especially affects young people
From the study we could conclude that by young women there was a perception of their body as a tool that could generate popularity.They consider that a photo of a body is something "intimate", but that when hunging a social networks style in which physical attributes are clearly seen an choice on their privacy.However, is it when it is the mechanisms of social networks that push you to hang the photo?
The young people noticed that they felt a certain hitch to social networks because they are platforms in which you have to be if you want to have some social status, especially when talking about Instagram.They also admitted that as much as they wanted to leave it, they did not finish getting it and always returned to it.This would not be the only toxic behavior with the platform, but also the need to have likes and comments in a publication.
In September, Facebook extraBajadora Frances Heugan leaked to the American press some internal reports of the social network that, among other things, showed that Meta knew that Instagram infuses psychological pressure on its users, especially among young girls.The young women interviewed confirmed this premise with their comments and their attitude towards this platform.
As we analyze in the study, we can conclude that we are faced with a fish that bite the tail: digital platforms use certain mechanisms to enhance their engagement -the interaction of users added to the time they pass within them -, weWe are attracted to them to the point of not being able to leave them, a bubble is created in which we begin to feel the need to be recognized and approved through likes and interactions, and thus companies get data and knowledge about us that then sell toThe advertisers.
"I also upload a lot [publications] to react, and so I feel better with myself and I feel dear, because I am worth something," admitted one of the interviewees."And it's also an ego thing and feel good.And to feel that people like it, that I am pretty… ”, replied another in the same discussion group.
And be careful, although these behaviors predominates in women for exhibitionist culture, the young men interviewed also admitted to this "Like economy": "You expose parts of yourself, those that you think are the best, right?And it is totally legitimate to use it to like, to flirt and of course, that can also be derived in other problems, in needing that approval or being exposing your followers all the time, your friends, who are, ”explained one of the interviewees.
Everyone knows that the Internet is important, but few know how it affects them
In December, the European Commission published a Eurobarometer on how European citizenship saw the progress of the Internet and its digital rights and that goes in line with the main conclusions of our study.We understand by digital rights those we have in the physical world, but that can also be applied on the Internet.For example, being able to have security and privacy when we use digital services or others as being able to disconnect from those same services when we use them in our work and we are out of our working hours.
One of the key points that this Eurobarometer throws is that just over a third of the European population (39%) is aware that their rights also have to be protected in the online plane.If we look only at Spain, the percentage is similar: 40% is not yet aware that we are also protected on the Internet and that there are certain rights that we can exercise on our own.
These results indicated.In general, three quarters of the European population surveyed (76%) have admitted to need this training.The difference between the Scandinavian and Nordic countries and the south or east of Europe is also remarkable: in the former there is much more awareness that digital rights exist.
All this telling that the barometer confirms that there is a concern on the part of citizens about how companies and administrations use their personal data.Spain coincides with the European average: 46% of the people surveyed indicated this point as something that caused them concern, only behind suffering a cyber attack and protecting children from Internet hazards.
Among the great conclusions of the Eurobarometer, the final icing: nine out of ten Europeans consider that digital training is necessary.Virtually everyone thinks that digital tools and the Internet will be important for their life in the future (especially young people), but this general ignorance about how their life and their rights in that environment works is still.
So, what can we do now?
This set of data and facts leaves us a bittersweet taste, but also a very clear conclusion: digital literacy and training on the value of personal data is more necessary than ever.Citizens continue to see the data extraction system and the economy of surveillance as something distant and impersonal, something that cannot affect them, and the relationship with the data extraction machinery from social networks from the time they dedicate to themStill without pending.Therefore, we also include a series of recommendations that could improve this panorama.