People with low income are becoming victims of privacy violations, here’s how

Everyone wants privacy but not everyone can afford it. We all know how easy it is for rich-class to simply purchase more secured phones like Apple and avail services to secure their data easily but people who can’t afford that are becoming victims of phone companies who are continuously exploiting low-income users around the world. With the rise of the internet, there is also a raise in the privacy concerns of user data and even though different corporations are attempting to monetize the web and introduce more products to secure data but people who fail to afford that are freely handing over their data to various companies just because they are left with no other choice at all.

Cheap smartphone sold with pre-installed apps

The low-income users are using smartphones with security vulnerabilities and there’s nothing more risky than that. Apple is considered as one of the most secure smartphones that even when the government attempted to force the company for a back-door into their phones, Apple clearly refused to do so. But not all can afford Apple, and those who can’t, end up purchasing low-cost phones with pre-installed apps like GMobi and Adups both of which have been accused of security violations over the past years. These pre-installed apps are known as ‘bloatware’ and as it is installed by the manufacturer which means that it can neither be removed nor be updated by the user which means that there’s nothing that stops the data from being leaked at all.

Companies want to profit, not privacy

All companies want profit and they don’t care if they have to handover some private information to third-parties, as long as they’re gaining profits all is considered to be okay. The majority of the people unintentionally agree to services when they sign up without even paying a little attention to it at all and this is making them lose their power over their privacy. People want the ability to access all sorts of services and platforms over the internet and very few of them care about their data privacy at all.

Are we too concerned about our privacy?

Some people might argue that maybe we are being too much concerned about privacy and that it is totally fine to share some information in exchange of services over the internet but what consumers don’t understand is that machines collect our data but only humans have access to it which means we are not even safe in our own homes.

The Chinese government has been keeping tabs on the Uyghurs for years

An app named WeChat with more than 1.13 billion active users was being used by Chinese government to monitor activities of the repressed minority group of Uyghurs and it even provided access to local police to check activity and location of the users and on that base police arrested so many citizens of Uyghur community for suspicious activities and sent them to hidden camps where there have been reports of rapes, medical experiments and even forced abortions as well.

Also read: Selling Your Used Phone Can Be Dangerous for Your Privacy

Similar to that, the risk of sharing personal information and provided its access to companies can result in something that might hurt us.

Bottom Line

It is the responsibility of companies to protect their customers from any sort of privacy violations even if they lack money. With the increasing number of data protection failures by companies, it is the responsibility of the government to take notice and provide more laws to protect user information. Even though there are so many data protection laws introduced by the government but very well-known companies like of Microsoft are still breaching data protection laws and getting away with it easily too. The laws are made to protect users and their information but along with that, it is also the sole responsibility of customers to be more aware of the things they agree to while signing up on social media platforms.