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Crosscurrents

Should we expect privacy when we use everyday technology?

Tech journalist Cyrus Farivar, author of the new book "Habeas Data: Privacy vs the Rise of Surveillance Tech."

 

According to Pew Research, 75 percent of Americans have smartphones. Most of us are using them for GPS directions, and about 70 percent of Americans are on some kind of social media.  Roughly two thirds on Facebook.

Technology is an undeniable part of our lives now. But with technology that makes life easier, comes the risk of personal privacy being violated. In March, Facebook came under fire when news broke that UK firm Cambridge Analytica harvested the data of 87 million Facebook users. Later that month, it announced an easier- to- find privacy control tool.

 

With all the tools and platforms we use every single day that carry our information, is there really such thing as privacy anymore?

Ars Technica reporter Cyrus Farivar tackles those questions in his new bookHabeas Data: Privacy vs the Rise of Surveillance Tech.

"If your Facebook profile is public, and your images are public, or you have public info about you — the name of your kids, the name of your spouse, the name of your partner — that info can easily be captured by some rogue actor for whatever reason."

Click the audio player above to listen to the full story.

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Crosscurrents technology
Hana Baba is host of Crosscurrents, KALW's weeknight newsmagazine that broadcasts on KALW Public Radio in the San Francisco Bay Area.