I’m trying to convince my friend that using certain apps will put their data at risk and stuff but I don’t have a concrete reason as to why it’s bad. I know it is but I can’t explain it.
In: Technology
Data theft doesn’t always directly impact you, but rather is damaging to others and society in general.
For example China has a history of hunting down and killing those who speak out against their regime, even outside the country. Giving China the tools to track people across the world is indirectly contributing to their murder even if you specifically aren’t murdered. This is why TikTok is so dangerous. And if enough people are using the platform then public discussion can be guided toward or away from certain topics.
A number of reasons.
The biggest is identity theft. Your private data becomes markedly less private online, and all it takes is you putting it in the wrong place for someone to be able to steal important things like bank information or your social security number. They can then freely use that information to steal your money, take out loans in your name, or do other negative things to your self and your character.
There’s also certain risks with having information like your geographic location out there. People can stalk you, send harmful things your way, or harass you with advertising materials.
As a final point, governments can use stolen data to oppress people. We don’t see this as much in the US or UK (although it does happen), but in certain places like China, data from the internet is used to oppress groups of people such as the Uighars.
If someone knows your cellphone number, they can hijack an MFA confirmation by getting a sim card assigned with your phone number. Sometimes a password reset is as simple as getting that MFA confirmation text.
Name, birthdate, postal address, and a good fake sob story can go a long way toward getting an institution to reset your password.
Security questions can be surprisingly generic… favorite color, favorite food, favorite pet etc can be figured out from personal information posted online.
Once someone gets into your primary email, a quick browse will determine which services you use, and password resets of those services can now be trivial at that point.
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