The Internet: Welcome to Creepsville
Business Daily
BBC
4.4 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 7 December 2018
⏱️ 18 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It's easy for anyone, from criminals to stalkers, to dig up your personal information online. So is it even possible to disappear in our digital world?
Manuela Saragosa is somewhat shocked by Tony McChrystal of data security firm ReputationDefender, when he reveals the personal details he discovered about her from a cursory search on his mobile phone shortly before she interviewed him.
Silkie Carlo of pro-privacy lobby group Big Brother Watch explains why she thinks the big social media companies and online retailers need to end the implicit deal whereby they offer us free services in return for the ability to track and monetise our data.
Plus Frank Ahearn explains how his job used to be trying to trace individuals who want to disappear, such as those who have skipped bail. Today he helps clients disappear online, to escape stalkers or dangerous former business associates. He says it's not that hard to throw people off your digital trail.
(Picture: Computer hacker working on laptop late at night in office; Credit: FangXiaNuo/Getty Images)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to Business Daily from the BBC. I'm Manuela Saragossa. Coming up, what does the internet know about me? |
| 0:09.3 | You can see, you know, your ages of your children, bring up email addresses for yourself and we found three different email addresses. |
| 0:15.4 | So it was easy, was it? Yeah. How long did it take you? To be honest, I've done this from my phone in the coffee shop about 20 minutes ago. |
| 0:22.3 | Welcome to Creepsville. |
| 0:24.1 | So has nothing changed online |
| 0:25.9 | after the scandal of Facebook |
| 0:27.3 | passing our data onto third parties? |
| 0:29.7 | In order to have any meaningful change, |
| 0:32.0 | you would have to change |
| 0:32.8 | the whole business model of Facebook |
| 0:35.4 | and lots of other social media networks and online platforms, |
| 0:38.8 | that simply hasn't happened. That's all in Business Daily from the BBC. |
| 0:45.8 | Unless you've been living off the grid or under a remote rock somewhere, you will have a digital |
| 0:51.5 | footprint. But is it possible to wipe out that footprint? |
| 0:54.9 | Is it possible to disappear online? |
| 0:57.4 | It's a question because recent scandals involving Facebook |
| 1:00.1 | have shown that social media sites are collecting all sorts of data about us |
| 1:04.2 | and then passing it on to third parties. |
| 1:06.7 | This week, for example, a British government panel investigating Facebook |
| 1:10.1 | found that the company had struck secret deals to give some developers special access to users' data. |
| 1:16.8 | For many of us, it's the implicit quid pro quo of the internet. |
| 1:20.1 | We give it our data, in return we get free access. |
... |
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