“… the amount of personal data being collected has grown to the point where it appears pointless to attempt to stop that collection.”
Simon Chesterman, Singapore Journal of Legal Studies National University of Singapore (2012)
Technology as the Driving Force
Just how much have people disclosed online?
90.5%
100%
81%
95.2%
57.1%
While we may not be aware, but identities can be formed by simply using your name, email and birthday - resulting in impersonation and identity theft!
Incremental tech innovations every year poses ever increasing risks of the general population through the collection of data from our gadgets - electric, internet enabled vehicles, smart home automation, and complex social networks. This has led to the increased value of personal data, making it a target for hackers.
Massive data breaches such as Yahoo’s data hacking in 2013 saw all 3 billion accounts stolen with names, emails, birth dates and more by hackers.
Yahoo wasn’t the only one affected, yet Facebook’s data leak on Amazon Cloud computing service in 2019 led to over 540 million user credentials exposed to the public sphere.
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In fact, one of the greatest forms of disclosure involves your identity. Have you ever disclosed your name, birthdate and mobile number online - let alone your face? Think again. With surveillance technologies and facial recognition at its finest, it is not surprising if corporations can identify you from a crowd!
With surveillance technologies and facial recognition at its finest, it is not surprising if corporations can identify you from a crowd!
Facial Recognition software can be bought as cheaply as $0.135 per minute and can be used with any camera! Are you being watched now?
With companies pro-actively yearning to collect your data, regardless of its importance - can be of interest to these companies.
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It is thus important that you take steps to be in control of your data.
While Singapore has done her best in establishing the Personal Data Protection Act in 2012 and its Do Not Call Registry, it has partially elevated the government’s stance in the control of data in the personals. Yet, the PDPA is a business-centric organisation and does not emphasises its efforts on regular people (like us).
The Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC) reported the increase in complaints in the exposure of personal data has grown up to 170% between a span of 3 years (2016 - 2019). Even with legislation, the breach of confidential personal information from SingHealth (2019) exposed the details of up to 14,200 individuals with HIV into the public sphere.
“increase in complaints in the exposure of personal data has grown up to 170%...”
2016-2019, Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC)
Learn how you can be in-charged of your data and get protected!
Still curious on this issue on Privacy? Read on here.
References
"PDPA Overview”, Personal Data Protection Commission, https://www.pdpc.gov.sg/Overview-of-PDPA/The-Legislation/Personal-Data-Protection-Act, Accessed 13 April 2020.
“Enquiry and Complaint Figures”, Personal Data Protection Commission, 2019, https://www.pdpc.gov.sg/Resources/Enquiry-and-Complaint-Figures, Accessed 28 January 2020.
"You’re Being Watched Right Now”, NYT Opinion, The New York Times, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8jDsg-M6qM.
“Amazon Rekognition”. Amazon, https://aws.amazon.com/rekognition/?nc=sn&loc=0.
"All 3 Billion Yahoo Accounts Were Affected by 2013 Attack”. The New York Times, 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/03/technology/yahoo-hack-3-billion-users.html.
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"Hundreds Of Millions Of Facebook User Records Were Exposed On Amazon Cloud Server". Cbsnews.Com, 2019, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/millions-facebook-user-records-exposed-amazon-cloud-server/.
Chesterman, Simon. “After Privacy: The Rise of Facebook, The Fall of Wikileaks, and Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act 2012”. Singapore Journal of Legal Studies, 2012, pp. 391–415. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/ stable/24872218.