‘I’ve got nothing to hide’; One of the most common answers when asked why does privacy matter. We are going to take a look at some of the top reasons why privacy matters even when you have nothing to hide.

We are working hard at mappd to change people’s views on privacy – it is not something that only ‘techies’ should worry about or the paranoid. Your privacy is really at threat as poor practices become the norm and companies spend the time and money to cover the reality in an attempt to gain trust.

You want freedom

Something that we all want in life is freedom. The ability to make your own choices and not be restricted to live your lives the way we want to. Freedom cannot be achieved without privacy. As a human you should have the right to withdraw your information that has been stored against you when needed. The reality is that we live in an age where our information is often held against us and not made easy

What can you do to encourage digital freedom?

Digital freedom will never be achieved unless the majority of people want it. We have found through our testing as part of mappd that in general, people do not want to put in the effort to exercise their rights and contest companies and processes. Our initial product was driven by the customer however we have changed this model to be less labour intensive and more automated. Using tools like mappd shows organisations that people do care and want to regain a level of control.

Ultimately the big businesses and government have the majority of control over our data and we have little choice. By raising awareness and showing companies that we want freedom by default, it will be within their best interest to provide secure and private solutions as opposed to a tick box exercise.

You want to feel safe

You’ll have a number of things within your personal space that make you feel safe; Locks on your door, passcode on your phone, intruder alarm systems and many more. These protections are in place to protect your physical valuables and keep you safe from harm.

Considering how much time we spend online and the impact that your digital life has, what protections can you say you have in place? The answer is likely nothing, or Anti-Virus at best.

Let’s take a look at some things that you can have in place to replicate the physical protections you may have;

Locks on your door

Burglar alarm

Shutting your curtains / blinds

Walls to stop neighbours hearing Two factor authentication

Breach monitoring

Removing your data not needed

Use secure businesses to prevent snooping

The comparison is important as often the digital theft or crime has a higher impact that the physical. For example; private photos being stolen causes a huge emotional impact or your sensitive medical information being published online.

It’s not enough to expect organisations to give you the required level of security and privacy – it’s never been more important to have privacy to feel safe.

You want privacy

An obvious one given the title, we all want privacy at some point. It is an essential part of being a human and needs to be respected. How many times have you had a conversation only for an advert to pop up immediately about the topic? Have you been googling health issues and had life insurance appear in your news feed?

The vast majority of people centre their lives around the use of social media, it can be the first and last thing that they look at in a day – this gives huge opportunities for organisations to invest in teams and methods to market to you without you noticing. There is little control over what you see however, as ultimately with services like Facebook, and other free to use services, you are the product. Companies use this data to manipulate us on a daily basis, subtle adverts and fake news that help mould your views without you noticing and is extremely effective.

More control is needed, without the added effort

The important part with privacy is control. People want to use Facebook, people want to use Google. This is ultimately because they solve a problem well. When an organisation has the ability to solve a problem and create a customer base that doesn’t want to miss out, the control is fully in their court as they then begin to exploit their customers for further profit and growth.

There are a couple of options here to help people become more private – either charge money for a service and give people the comfort that they are not the product, or be transparent and easy to understand for people to clearly accept what will happen with their information.

Unfortunately, for the majority of companies, this won’t happen because the majority of people still don’t care.

Summary

With the number of data breaches and hacks happening on a daily basis, it’s never been more important to protect yourself digitally and begin to take privacy into your own hands. Organisations have proven time and time again that they cannot handle data in a secure way and do not prioritise privacy.

There are a number of things that you can do to ultimately reduce your risk. Some of the risks are;

Identity theft – having your identity cloned or impersonated for someone to live a false life under your details. This can have significant emotional damages and reprocussions such as difficulty obtaining credit,

Money Fraud – Having your money stolen, whether it is card details stolen for fraudulent purchases, money transferred from bank accounts.

Sextortion – Being held hostage with sexual images or details, often fake to make you think that you have to give into the ransom

Extortion – Being held hostage with any form of personal information or sensitive data, usually being held to ransom. Often tying in with harassment.

Bullying – Being cyber bullied or being bullied physically due to data being stolen or mistreated.

These are some of the risks that can occur from poor privacy and security. Keeping one step ahead and protecting yourself should be a no-brainer. This is far from reality and it is still considered too much effort and too niche for mainstream adoption. Mappd was built on this basis – to bring security and privacy to the general public in a simple, easy way to understand and utilise.

Mappd can help reduce the risk of these areas by the following;

Reduce the number of places your data is held

Every place that your data is held is another place it can be stolen from. If you had 300 houses, it’s more likely one would be broken into than if you had one. Removing your data from locations is a great way to reduce your overall risk. Mappd gives you the information you need to get your data deleted.

Find your data across the internet

You can’t protect what you can’t find. Locating your information is the first step to digital safety as ultimately you will not know where to focus your efforts. Mappd shows you your data across the world to let you visualise the extent of your digital footprint

Monitor your accounts for breaches and threats

Your personal alarm system. Mappd scans your accounts and locations where your data is held 24/7. You will receive an alert if mappd has identified a new threat or breach that you are involved in, keeping you one step ahead of attackers.

Give actions to solve security risks

Don’t know where to start? Once you have signed up to mappd, you will get the ability to reduce your risk score, similar to a credit check, in minutes. If you are reading this and haven’t signed up, you could significantly reduce your risk of fraud in less than 5 minutes from now, Why wait? Sign up now 🎉

mappd aims to give the general public access to the tools to reduce these risks in a secure and private way.