Your private chats are being read! Your private calls are being heard! You are under watch every second, everywhere. How do they sound? Scary, Right! Well, this is the reality of today’s world that we are currently living in, at least the recent survey about advertisements says so.
Survey finds the theory behind advertisements
A survey was conducted by community social media platforms Localcircles, whose findings have been released this week. The finding of the survey suggests that one in two Indians said that they received advertisements based on their private conversations.
In the survey over 53 per cent of the people admitted that they have seen advertisements on the web or app based on their private conversations over the phone. Among them, 28 per cent admitted that it happens frequently, while 19 per cent said it had happened several times. Also, 24 per cent of people said it never happened and 23 per cent were undecided.
The surveys also accounted that majority of Indians have enabled their mobile phone microphone access for audio calls, social media and third-party audio recording apps.
84 per cent of smart phone users admitted during the survey that they have given the Whatsapp access to their contact list, and social networking apps like Facebook or Instagram and sometimes both and 41 per cent to caller information apps like True caller.
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Privacy still a distant dream
A large number of people have raised the issue of contextual advertisements post private phone calls at an alarming rate. And the survey about advertisements suggests that if no action is taken on this issue chances are that we will see financial frauds and personal information getting compromised with no accountability.
The main underlying reason for this, are the apps that seek permission for more than 45 per cent activities supported on the smart phone. There exists a digital Big Boss who not only tracks and records everything but also keeps tabs on the daily lives of users. The major reason to worry is that most of the people around are unaware of this naked truth.
A study had earlier revealed that Indian users share more data with Android applications than anybody else in the world. Whenever we install an app, it seeks a book of permissions to access almost everything from contacts to camera to microphone and whatnot. However, on the contrary, the apps do not need whole lot of accesses to perform certain tasks. The study suggests that one-third of requests being sought are actually of no use to the application’s core performance. And this makes privacy a distant dream.
Also Read- Zuckerberg finally takes his fangs out: New WhatsApp policy is a dystopian attack on user privacy
The game behind the world of ‘Permissions’ and advertisements
Now the biggest question that can come to one’s mind is why these apps and commonly used websites demand permissions to work, well here lies the key to all questions.
The applications collect data and many share the data with third parties, settled somewhere outside the nation, especially US. The third party advertising firms and analytics companies are the reason behind what users see on their mobile screens.
For the majority of the apps, the major chunk of the profit comes from advertisements that in turns come from selling the user data to third party. Apps collect a major chunk of data and this signifies that need of strong policy and regulatory framework in the country. Millions of users who access the digital world should be aware and worry more about the personal data which can be used by third parties to our detriment.
