Hello Netizens————Do you know that some of the daily activities that we do on the cyberspace put us at risk of being surveilled from everywhere we go, we want everybody to know where we are. So, we are going to take photos and we’re going to say we’re chilling here, we’re doing this. That gives information to somebody who wants to target you for a specific purpose, if for instance I want to advertise a hotel. And I know you’re a traveler. I will find that out from your Facebook timeline. You like your weekends out. So I’m going to bombard your wall with adverts for my hotel. Itcuts across. Every little thing you do online is material for somebody.
The internet has provided innumerable new ways to communicate and access information, and we are more connected now than ever before. Each time we use the internet, whether installing an app on our mobile phone, sending an email or posting on social media, we also transmit information about ourselves. Our emails, texts and calls may seem inconsequential. But when these small fragments of our lives are assembled, they can be used to form a detailed picture of who we are: our beliefs, identity, likes, dislikes, location, movements, associations and more.
As internet use grows, activities such as listening in on private calls, spying on activists or monitoring communications of marginalised groups can now be carried out through electronic surveillance technologies. Although some people may have a deep understanding of how technology works, they may not have an in depth understanding of human rights. Likewise, people with in depth human rights knowledge may not truly understand how technology impacts them.
Our humanity face real risks in the digital era, and there is an urgent need for all of us to learn and acquire tools and strategies to strengthen our willpower capacity in a manner that the machine do not take command on us but we command our behavior psychology of handing the usage of internet as a knowledge tool only and not as a communication tool because it is our self-defense ideology will protect our digital security and defend ourselves against new kinds of threats.
I think human mental wellbeing and physical wellbeing in this wonderful nature is very basic essence of cooperating to live with nature, so digital security is very important because digital space and computational tools and devices and the internet are greatly a part of our everyday life today. And there’s a huge need today in my opinion also for different forms of global solidarity and alliances. And living also in an economy that’s greatly centered around free and fake information, it’s very important to understand more this environment that we use for work and communication.
I would say that one of the ways to communicate the importance of digital security to those who are not concerned is to share stories about people who have faced any of these threats and then they can see how important and how common it is. Digital and online security is important because when it’s there, it gives us a sense of security and confidence to do what we do.
Strengthening digital security = Claiming human wellbeing
Thinking about digital security in terms of human rights helps us to understand how digital security affects and concerns us all. It shows how digital security is a collective human concern. Unfortunately, there are some popular misunderstandings when it comes to digital security. For example, people often feel ready to accept restrictions to their right to privacy, with the belief that it will allow the government to better protect national security. Many also assume that digital security is only needed by those acting unethically. Some people assume that a person who defends their online privacy and freedoms likely engages in sneaky or suspicious behaviour. Others fear that, if they practice digital security, other people will make the same assumption about them. Either way, people with this view dismiss the protection that human rights provide to all of us. They use phrases such as these:
Privacy: “I have nothing bad to hide.”
Freedom of expression: “I’m not communicating anything dangerous.”
Freedom of assembly and association: “I do not keep company with illegitimate people or groups.”
Digital security, however, is not about hiding or saying or associating with anything in particular. It is about protecting our ability to do so. What a government considers as bad or dangerous or illegitimate changes as often as governments themselves change. If what we say and believe, or who we associate with, becomes disagreeable to a new regime, then these protections become vital.
This is why practicing digital security is fundamentally about claiming our human rights.
#So Netizens apply your wisdom of mind to think before clicking on the internet for the purpose for which you are there i.e., whether you have logged on the internet to ‘read’ information for pure knowledge or have fallen into the trap of these business model of ‘giving’ your personal self identity to the virtually functioning artificial intelligence- Who meet one day become more intelligent than all the human mind because it is our mind advancement which helped in bringing humanity to life not ‘Google’ or ‘A.I powered Alexa’. Build a habit of self learning that our brain knows everything and can provide best solution to our quest to knowledge than google.
Ayush Saran
PhD Scholar, N.L.I.U, Bhopal.
LL.M, P.G.D Cyber Law, Cert. Internet Crime Investigator
