Privacy laws and the way we protect our information is at the coalface of our changing world.

In recent times big tech platforms have come under fire for not doing enough to protect user’s private information. Third parties often buy our information. Sometimes private information is leveraged against advertising rates. It all relies on our data.

Improve your privacy settings

One can be forgiven for thinking that the reality presented in The Matrix  is coming to fruition.

We have not turned into batteries. Instead the fuel driving business and profit is our data. We are subject to an array of surveillance techniques in order to understand our behaviour; in order to monetize our data.

Ahmore Burger-Smidt from Werkmans Attorneys spoke to us about this recently on THT.

She advised us on how we can further improve our privacy settings. She also criticized users for being complacent and being indifferent to privacy settings.

We as users must be more proactive! Ts and Cs agreement are long and laborious. But we have to take time to actually read them.

Merely allowing big tech to access our data is simply not good enough. Moreover, there are obligations on the platform side to control data breaches. Unfortunately, as headlines has shown us, it is a security risk.

Cookies, Ahmore says, is one way that platforms track our online movement and behaviour. She further advises us to manage these cookies. The option is for our benefit so let’s make the effort.  How many of us do, asks Ahmore?

Furthermore, location settings are another way behaviour surveillance is expanded, and marketed to third parties warns Ahmore.

South Africa does have world class legislation when it comes to protecting our privacy. The Protection of Personal Information Act  –  POPIA –  is in place for our protection and to provide industry guidelines around best practice.

How many of us have read the law?

We need to familiarize ourselves with the law to know our rights as users. In this way we can continually protect our data.

We live in ever-evolving landscapes with regulators wanting to clamp down; big tech responds by shifting accountability onto publishers, while users are left vulnerable to being exploited by the platforms.

We always click ‘agree’. So as a start let’s all know what we are agreeing too!