If I had to pick my top realization of 2010 pertaining to modern technology, it would have to be the shock I’ve experienced over just how much information today’s modern devices can track and record about consumers.
I’ve always known that internet connected devices were capable of such things, but it didn’t really hit me until I purchased my first Android smartphone this year. The geotracking capability that allows me to view my location on Google Maps and watch it shift with incredible accuracy as I walk through my home was astounding to me. Then I realized that several functions of the device, including taking pictures and posting status updates on social networks, could use that data to let people know where I was without me ever saying a word.
All of this is well and good if the consumer has full control over the collection and reporting of the data, but we are beginning to see more cases where technology like this is reporting back to companies without consumer knowledge. In August, after Apple filed a patent on new iPhone technology that would report back to the company in the event that someone attempted to Jailbreak their device, the Electronic Freedom Foundation (EFF) coined the term “traitorware”.
Eva Galperin, blogger for the EFF, explains what the term traitorware encompasses in a recent post:
“Your digital camera may embed metadata into photographs with the camera's serial number or your location. Your printer may be incorporating a secret code on every page it prints which could be used to identify the printer and potentially the person who used it. If Apple puts a particularly creepy patent it has recently applied for into use, you can look forward to a day when your iPhone may record your voice, take a picture of your location, record your heartbeat, and send that information back to the mothership.”
Of course, Apple is far from the only company using such technology to track data about their customers. With every application I install on my Android phone, there is a supposedly accurate disclosure about what data the app is collecting from me. What are all of these simple apps doing with all of this data, I often wonder, and who is ensuring that the disclosures are accurate?
As we become even more connected, more of our actions are going to be recorded and transmitted to corporate servers. It is up to us, however, to hold corporations accountable for their actions. A lawsuit filed just last week alleges that iPhone and iPad applications sold information to ad networks without the users’ consent. Information included location, age, gender, income, ethnicity, sexual orientation and political views.
We must demand to know specifically why corporations need our data and what they are using it for. It has become blatantly obvious at this point that it’s up to us to protect ourselves from this growing “traitorware” trend.
