Story highlights Timothy Carone: WikiLeaks dump appears to show that CIA can hack into the phones, TV and anything people use on Internet

He says your information 'avatar' is available to anyone capable of accessing and using it; and you probably can't do anything about it

Timothy Carone is an associate teaching professor in the Department of IT, Analytics, and Operations in the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business. He is the co-author of "Future Automation: Changes to Lives and to Businesses." The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

(CNN) What should we citizens make of the report from WikiLeaks, which published what it said were internal CIA documents showing that the agency developed secret tools to spy on us by hacking into pretty much anything we use on the Internet -- our computers, smartphones, even our TVs?

Cybersecurity experts are trying to figure out what it all means, and not much is clear right now. Meanwhile, there are things that regular people should take a minute to understand.

First, every one of us has an online presence -- call it an information avatar -- that reflects what we buy, what we watch and read online, where we live and work, who our friends and loved ones are, who we are. Companies, governments, employers, friends, enemies, acquaintances -- all want access to this data.

This avatar gets more valuable with time as we increase our digital presence with online bank and brokerage accounts, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, credit and debit cards.

Eventually, as our cars and homes migrate online -- through smart appliances like thermostats and coffee makers and home monitoring systems -- our avatars will become even more valuable to many organizations.

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