When it comes to the Internet, if you're not paying for a product, you probably are the product.
As data collection has become the currency of the digital economy, consumers are the ones generating the value. But many people are often oblivious to the access they grant some companies when they blindly accept their terms and conditions.
Privacy advocates at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona have been taking big Internet firms to task this week for what they regard as gross privacy violations and the exploitation of users' tendency to click "accept" without first reading a contract.
Experts say companies often hide seemingly nefarious permissions in the fine print, from reading text messages to modifying contacts and automatically turning off wireless devices' airplane mode.
"Make no mistake, there are no free apps," Mikko Hyppönen, chief research officer at Finnish anti-virus company F-Secure, said during a panel discussion on Monday. "All of these free offerings are monetizing themselves one way or another."
Read more: Privacy advocates take Big Data to task | Business | DW.DE | 04.03.2015
As data collection has become the currency of the digital economy, consumers are the ones generating the value. But many people are often oblivious to the access they grant some companies when they blindly accept their terms and conditions.
Privacy advocates at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona have been taking big Internet firms to task this week for what they regard as gross privacy violations and the exploitation of users' tendency to click "accept" without first reading a contract.
Experts say companies often hide seemingly nefarious permissions in the fine print, from reading text messages to modifying contacts and automatically turning off wireless devices' airplane mode.
"Make no mistake, there are no free apps," Mikko Hyppönen, chief research officer at Finnish anti-virus company F-Secure, said during a panel discussion on Monday. "All of these free offerings are monetizing themselves one way or another."
Read more: Privacy advocates take Big Data to task | Business | DW.DE | 04.03.2015
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