Privacy!!! Everyone demands it. There has been a lot of discussions around this. Who has access to my data? What are they doing with it? Are they keeping tabs on me? The questions are endless. Recently, there was the #1oYearsChallenge and this raised concerns from a lot of people. Some claimed this was just another way for corporations or whoever to get more information about you. #GDPR enforced in 2018 brought a lot of awareness to data privacy.

Now, we are not talking about data security or protection as that will be a whole different ball game; I think they are kind of intertwined. How often do you check your privacy settings on your social media accounts? You might be sharing just more than you should. I think some of these apps come with some default settings that let you share so much more than you should. Some data experts will say “If everyone is clamoring for data privacy how then can we get the benefits for which data bring?”.

There are loads of techniques that could be used to hide one’s real identity. You have probably read on how a data analyst got to request the NYC taxicab data and was able to get details on celebrities trip. Scary, I know :-). All hail the Freedom of Information Act(FOIA) You begin to imagine how many footprints you are leaving everywhere. There are techniques to mask/getting real identities such as de-identification, de-anonymization, re-identification, e.t.c

This is just one instance of privacy violation but then again, we are all entitled to these data but won’t it help if the organizations used some of these techniques to hide our identity? Again, I know the argument of “we need to make our world better…” but it has to be while ensuring everyone’s safety and privacy.