argia.eus
INPRIMATU
Technology
Closing curtain
Diana Franco 2024ko otsailaren 28a

Two doors and curtains are the analogy that suits me well with older people to explain the ideas of security and privacy. The lock of the door with a key relates it safely, so that nobody enters the container that is the house. I relate curtain closure to privacy so no one with the closed curtain can watch what's going on in your house. Mobiles have sold us as windows open to the world, but although that's not false, they've become a device for analyzing our ways of life. It is about removing from our global vision the need for privacy to drive the surveillance business, creating the need and the value of managing with applications everything we do (what to eat, who to relate to, what to think, what to do…). The source of information collection (devices) has been modified, but the objective remains the same: to create advantages for certain products, services or ideas to be more consumed in people's minds.

That’s why increasing security and privacy in threat reduction and mobile benefits is highly recommended. However, this work is becoming more and more difficult due to the large number of sensors with which our sophisticated devices receive external information: gyroscope (to locate where we are), light sensor, microphone, camera, fingerprint sensor, magnetometer (compass), barometer, infrared sensor (to place heat sources, e.g., body), heart rate sensor... If the applications that we have are tools, the information that these sensors receive will remain on our mobiles, if the applications that we have are services, it will be a third party who receives that information.

How do you manage mobile privacy then? This is not a single answer question, as the needs of each one of them have to be analysed. To get started, choose the services you really need, remove those you don't need, and in the applications that are left, you can start by managing the permissions that they have to their censuses.