A number of technological advancements have resulted in the past decade which has brought masses together and has changed the process of communication. The communication, behavior, philosophies and conduct of people have also changed due to increased use of internet. In the past days, communication was one dimensional but with the advent of internet and mobile internet penetration, the face of communication has changed in a positive way beyond recognition. This essay focuses on how e- technologies have changed modern social life and how suppliers of such technologies have sought to overcome risks and threats of these technologies.
The use of e- technologies has changed the modern social life in an unmeasurable way. The advent of internet has made communication with masses easier than before. This e- technology is utilized by people for communicating for the purpose of trade as it allows them to connect with the world in a better way. Nowadays, there is no dependency of businesses on the geographical locations for reaping profits.
These e- technologies have changed the target audience of the businesses from local to global and have led to hassle- free shopping and selling experiences for customers and businesses. Customer behavior is easily being driven by the companies by making prediction of their expenditures and then exploiting them by way of continuously suggesting what they seek. These e- technologies uses the search behavior of the customers as a cue in order to convince them for buying something even they know that they do not need it. In this way the customer behavior is influenced by internet (Aditya, Bhattacharjee, Druschel, Erdelyi & Lentz, 2015).
There are a number of advantages offered by these e- technologies to people which have provided it with greater popularity. The users can gain easy access to the relevant information with the help of e- technologies at anytime and anywhere. When plenty of information is available on the go, the brain also works at its full potential and creativity is encouraged. For example, kickstarter.com is a great platform where creative people can easily get funding for their projects from the community. In this way, capital can be generated for their ideas which, in turn, also lead to creation of new jobs and innovation in technology.
E- technologies have also facilitated creative work through the increasing use of Facebook, Google, Amazon, Microsoft. Advanced communication technologies have been offered such as e- mail, e- fax, video conferencing, social networking, instant messaging applications, etc. These technologies have assisted in the simplification of the process in which humans and businesses used to communicate (Brown & Duguid, 2017).
This has resulted in improved lifestyle and housing of the people. Majority of the items of the houses have now become automated such as the Bluetooth on the mobile and use of key cards or fingerprints for doors, etc. The evolution of integrated security system has also increased the level of security at home. The entertainment industry has also changed altogether with the emergence of e- technologies.
The invention of video games, visual systems, and advance music systems has improved the level of home entertainment. The production of the business has also subsequently increased with the help of e- technologies. When the activities are performed by humans, it takes more time and the quality is also not up to the mark. However, the use of e- technologies by the business in their production line has resulted in increased output and more consistency in quality (Marwick & Boyd, 2014).
The most important change in the social life is brought by the increasing use of social networking. Now people can easily get in touch with their old friends along with establishing network with some new friends. Businesses are also using this platform for interacting with their customers, obtaining their feedbacks and comments on their products and for resolving their queries and grievances. With the use of social networks, people can easily share their information with the friends and interact with them in all sorts of ways such as through chatting, video calling, etc. (Ruths & Pfeffer, 2014)
There are a number of risks associated with the use of e- technologies. The first thing that comes to mind while thinking about e- technologies is privacy. The activity performed by an individual on the internet is their behavior and recording of their behavior for the purpose of making predictions regarding their future activities is known as exploitation. Individuals are aware that their data is being recorded on the internet for the purpose of presenting products and services to them in accordance with their preference, however, there are a number of times when some important data of the users is shared with companies on the internet without having any window of security (Kerber, 2016).
The digital identity of the user is compromised and it is expected to remain the same for a long time in the future. This is due to the fact that once the information is placed on the internet, it is very hard to erase it. Tech giants such as Google which is the most used search engine in the world collect a large amount of information regarding its users. Such data varies from the basic information regarding an individual such as name and birthday to the entire history of their clicks, searches, devices and locations used for the purpose of logging in. however, this is done for offering a personalized user experience but in doing so, the personal information of the user is compromised (Bray, 2016).
Millions of people have suffered from identity theft which has often resulted in legal problems and financial losses to them. Name and birthdate are demanded by every website that requires the registration of the user. Such data is often misutilised by the hackers for breaching the privacy of the users and causing damage. Sometimes breaches are also suffered by the secured banking applications (Rader, 2014).
The threats of e- technologies also include tracking of the user data. Each website which is visited by the user makes the use of cookies. In this way, they become obliged to notify the users regarding it and therefore require them to click on “Agree”, “Accept” or “OK” button in order to continue. Specific data regarding the website and the client is stored by the cookies. With the help of this information, tailored page is delivered by the server for the mentioned user (Fire, Goldschmidt & Elovici, 2014).
Privacy issues have also resulted due to the increased use of smartphones. Smartphones have facilitated the use of different apps and almost every app requires permissions for accessing the entire phone of the user including texts, contacts, notifications, emails, storage, etc. (Proudfoot, Wilson, Valacich & Byrd, 2018). Recently, Facebook announced that now they are capable of tracing even the non- users through the “Like” button which have now become the part of every website. The people who still does not use this social networking platform are displayed some ads relevant to their browsing history. With the help of the cookies stored in the plugins and like buttons, relevant ads are displayed to the non- users also (Bartsch & Dienlin, 2016).
The providers or suppliers of e- technology have been promising the security and encryption for making the use of their services. These security features are updated by them on timely basis so that the security of the users is not compromised. However, these security parameters are considered to be relevant only for a particular time period. A major part of the resources of these providers or suppliers of e- technology is spent for the purpose of ensuring security to their users. As far as internet is concerned, control for each and every aspect is something which is non- achievable and the suppliers are required to strive for it on continuous basis (Stallings, 2017).
Companies are establishing their own privacy policies through which they protect the privacy of the customers. Social networks have now become a widely used platform by the people. Facebook has taken a wide step for protecting the user’s data. It provides options to the users through they can decide the privacy of their photos, videos and profile pictures. It has recently brought a new option for their users with the help of which they can guard their profile photos (Child & Starcher, 2016).
In today’s global digital economy, providers of e- technologies are also becoming accountable and transparent. Companies like Cisco are increasingly showing their commitment towards helping their partners and customers by respecting and protecting their personal data. They have established certain privacy programs, long- standing security and data protection programs along with being committed towards showing compliance with the regulations, corporate code of conduct and customer needs (Tucker, 2014).
Suppliers of e- technologies are also investing in comprehensive data protection program. With the help of data protection programs, the data throughout the lifecycle of companies are taken into consideration. The procedure initiates with privacy and security by design and covers privacy enhancing technologies and privacy engineering methodology, management of use, collection, processing and storage. Being a global citizen includes structured flexibility and awareness across the cultural divides (Chua, Herbland, Wong & Chang, 2017).
Google’s activity tracker has also provided ‘turn off’ option through which the user can choose whether they want to allow the tracker to have a track of their activities or not. Browsers also assist the users in blocking the ads displayed on the browser (Datta, Tschantz & Datta, 2015). Privacy policies are displayed on the sites by the e- technology suppliers before they require the user to accept any agreement. All the smartphone applications also ask for permissions to use the contacts, photos, messages, etc. before installation so that if the user does not want them to access such information, they can decide not to use it.
Online companies have also taken number of steps so that they can protect the privacy of the users. They offer suggestions whether the password is strong or not and reminds to make the use of special characters for making the password stronger. Security questions are also required to be set by various suppliers of e- technologies so that greater security to the accounts can be provided. There are also options for double verification and provision of password recovery e- mail which can be used to send new password in cases when the user loses their old one. In this way, the suppliers of such technologies are attempting to overcome the risks and threats associated with these technologies (Floridi, 2014).
Therefore, it can be concluded that the advent of e- technologies have completely transformed the modern social life. Internet has made communication with masses much easier than before. The advantages of e- technologies include easy access to relevant information, instant communication, etc. However, there are certain risks and threats related with the use of e- technologies such as risk to security of the user data, identity theft and tracking.
The providers or suppliers of e- technology have been promising the security and encryption for making the use of their services. Companies are also establishing their own privacy policies and are offering a number of options through which the users can choose their privacy options themselves. Suppliers of e- technologies are also investing in comprehensive data protection program and are establishing certain privacy programs, long- standing security along with being committed towards showing compliance with the regulations, corporate code of conduct and customer needs.
References
Aditya, P., Bhattacharjee, B., Druschel, P., Erdelyi, V. and Lentz, M., 2015. Brave new world: Privacy risks for mobile users. ACM SIGMOBILE Mobile Computing and Communications Review, 18(3), pp.49-54.
Bartsch, M. and Dienlin, T., 2016. Control your Facebook: An analysis of online privacy literacy. Computers in Human Behavior, 56, pp.147-154.
Bray, M., 2016. Going Google: Privacy Considerations in a Connected World. Knowledge Quest, 44(4), pp.36-41.
Brown, J.S. and Duguid, P., 2017. The Social Life of Information: Updated, with a New Preface. Harvard Business Review Press.
Child, J.T. and Starcher, S.C., 2016. Fuzzy Facebook privacy boundaries: Exploring mediated lurking, vague-booking, and Facebook privacy management. Computers in Human Behavior, 54, pp.483-490.
Chua, H.N., Herbland, A., Wong, S.F. and Chang, Y., 2017. Compliance to personal data protection principles: A study of how organizations frame privacy policy notices. Telematics and Informatics, 34(4), pp.157-170.
Datta, A., Tschantz, M.C. and Datta, A., 2015. Automated experiments on ad privacy settings. Proceedings on Privacy Enhancing Technologies, 2015(1), pp.92-112.
Fire, M., Goldschmidt, R. and Elovici, Y., 2014. Online social networks: threats and solutions. IEEE Communications Surveys & Tutorials, 16(4), pp.2019-2036.
Floridi, L., 2014. Open data, data protection, and group privacy. Philosophy & Technology, 27(1), pp.1-3.
Kerber, W., 2016. Digital markets, data, and privacy: competition law, consumer law and data protection. Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice, 11(11), pp.856-866..
Marwick, A.E. and Boyd, D., 2014. Networked privacy: How teenagers negotiate context in social media. New media & society, 16(7), pp.1051-1067.
Proudfoot, J.G., Wilson, D., Valacich, J.S. and Byrd, M.D., 2018. Saving face on Facebook: privacy concerns, social benefits, and impression management. Behaviour & Information Technology, 37(1), pp.16-37.
Rader, E.J., 2014, July. Awareness of Behavioral Tracking and Information Privacy Concern in Facebook and Google. In SOUPS, 14, pp. 51-67.
Ruths, D. and Pfeffer, J., 2014. Social media for large studies of behavior. Science, 346(6213), pp.1063-1064.
Stallings, W., 2017. Cryptography and network security: principles and practice (p. 743). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Tucker, C.E., 2014. Social networks, personalized advertising, and privacy controls. Journal of Marketing Research, 51(5), pp.546-562.
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