Connecting databases: The big danger (02:17)

Connecting databases: The big danger

[wcm_restrict plans=”admin”]

Welcome to topic two of lesson three. Connecting databases: the big danger. Governments and companies know that when they connect one database to the other, you’ll get way more insights. The more data you collect, the more you can analyse and the more you can get to know about an individual or a groups behavior. As we showed in a previous example in the topic “metadata your online identity”, you can connect creditcard payment to unique individuals, even when names have been whiped. This is the power of connecting databases.

So when you combine databases, also called integrating data, this can lead to enormous insights. You just need one key to combine all different sorts of data of one person. An example of such a key is your e-mailadress. You Android software on your phone obliges you to login with your Google account when you setup your phone for the first time. This e-mail get connected to your creditcard information, what apps you download in the Google Playstore, all your activities in the apps, location by wifi triangulation, location by gps, movements, camera, microphones, facial recognicion etc. When you use a degoogled phone, your apps cannot be attached to a certain identity through an e-mailadres, so this data becomes meaningless. Because without being able to connect it all and tie it to an identity, now it’s just meaningless data flowing around. So now someone with access to multiple databases, cannot tie all this data together.

This is a real important lesson: privacy is managed by managing our identity, without necessarily needing secrecy. As long as data cannot be connected to your personal identity, you are private! And by the way, you will still be able to use a service like YouTube. More on that in section three. See you in the next one!

[/wcm_restrict]