92 ELLECANADA.COM
SOCIETY
When you think about privacy as a
matter of control, it’s more obvious why
mass surveillance is a signature of totali-
tarian states. “You cannot have a free and
democratic society without a foundation
of privacy,” says Cavoukian. Likewise,
Brenda McPhail, director of the Privacy,
Technology & Surveillance Project at the
Canadian Civil Liberties Association,
points out: “Privacy is an internationally
recognized human right. So when we
talk about tools and apps violating our
privacy, what we’re really talking about
is a business model we’re allowing to take
away a fundamental right.”
The tech we use daily knows us better
than our best friend does, and it’s not in
the business of keeping secrets. “Basically,
it’s without limits,” says Cavoukian, who’s
regarded as one of the world’s leading
privacy experts, when asked what per-
sonal data is being amassed through our
can’t-put-down devices. Unless you’ve
taken extra security measures, “you have
to assume your information is flowing
out there,” she adds.
Here’s just some of the data-hoard-
ing that’s going on: Facebook knows
what you’re doing on Facebook—and
off Facebook. It tracks your behaviour
around the web in numerous ways,
including “like” buttons and the invis-
ible FB pixel embedded on advertiser
sites. The latter enables companies to
“re target” you later, serving up a
Facebook or Instagram promo for that
lipstick you were perusing. Google knows
who you are, what you’re searching
(from the banal to the deeply intimate),
wh at’s i n you r Gm a i l mes sa ges a nd ever y
location you’ve been.
With Facebook and Instagram, there’s
also been long-running speculation that
these apps are eavesdropping on us. How
else to explain that creepy coincidence of
seeing an ad pop up that’s promoting a
store you just mentioned to a friend over
lunch? No one has hard proof, but the
rumour won’t die, despite Facebook and
IG’s repeated denia ls. I n McPha i l’s v iew,
these companies don’t need to tap your
mic—they can find out so much about
you already, which is no more reassuring.
Then there are smart devices designed
to listen, like Google Home and Amazon
Alexa. Last year, a woman in Portland,
Ore., was alarmed to discover that her
Alexa had secretly recorded a private
conversation she’d had with her hus-
band—and sent the audio to a random
acquaintance. While Amazon cited
Alexa’s misinterpretation of words to
explain what it called an “extremely
rare occurrence,” the case highlights the
pr iv a c y we g ive up when we welcome tech
desig ned to eavesd rop. “ I won’t have it i n
my home,” says McPhail. “We’re in the
Wild West right now when it comes to
these ‘internet of things’ devices.” There’s
a lack of regulations restricting what they
can and can’t do, she explains.
What the internet’s biggest companies
are capable of may not be surprising, but
there’s good reason to be suspicious of a l l
apps, from the aforementioned weather
checkers, which are reselling real-time
location data, to selfie tuners wanting to
access your entire camera roll. Consider
a recent study done at Northeastern
University in which researchers analyzed
more than 17,000 Android apps. They
found that some were sending screenshots
and videos of phone activities to third
parties—without getting permission or
notifying users. Such a privacy breach
could be exploited to, say, steal sensitive
info, like your credit-card number.
But perhaps the darkest side to apps
being capable of spying on us is stalker-
ware, or what a recent report from the
Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto
called “the predator in your pocket.”
Stalkerware is defined as any software
with the ability to conduct surveillance
and that can be used, for example, by
an abusive partner to control, harass
and terrorize a significant other. (Even
legit apps, like a GPS tracker intended
for keeping tabs on your kid, can be
stalkerware if used like this.)
According to a 2014 NPR survey of
counsellors at domestic-violence shelters
in the U.S., 85 percent had helped victims
whose abusers tracked them with GPS.
Sometimes, abusers need to get the vic-
tim’s phone to install stalkerware; other P
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