It seems that every day we have a slew of new sensational cases and revelations that make us stop and think “Is our privacy over? Does anyone even care? What are we to do to protect ourselves?” I say, relax, the situation is bad, but it is not as bad you might think and probably not for the reasons you might think so.

Let’s discuss the latest items in the news. First, let’s think about the ‘loss of privacy’ that the removal of the Obama era rule concerning selling data by providers. What does this really mean to how our data is protected? The rule that is being removed did not in any way effect search engines, like Google, that have never been restricted from selling your search data, to begin with. With this change, search engines might actually now have some competition. And it is ridiculous to say that you can change search engines more easily than your internet provider since sometimes it is exactly the opposite. So, when considering your privacy, what does this change really do for or to you? In reality – nothing. Your local Target knows more about your buying patterns than AT&T or Verizon. In any situation you consider, beware of all the hype.

Second, to the CIA being able to hack any device and application. Not surprising and actually nothing new here. Of course, they can, as can many other rogue players in the world today. If we make that assumption – i.e. that any device is hackable, it is much simpler to decide a course of action.

It is certainly clear that encryption alone cannot protect any of us from this situation. In fact, often things are collected not by the big bad CIA, but simply by apps you installed voluntarily. You, yes you, actually clicked to accept their terms and gave them rights to access and invade your privacy. With a simple click we provide far too much access to too much stuff.

Another thing that has become clear – you cannot hack content that does not exist on the device. This should make all of us think about content expiration and content control in an entirely different light – whether in our personal lives and communication or how we collaborate for business. Hence the rise in secure messaging apps that provide self-destructing, ephemeral text. You can’t hack what is not present. Once purged it’s gone and no one can access or sell or otherwise invade privacy.

Bottom line: Encryption alone can never provide the security required to fully protect privacy.

To find out more about how to ensure your privacy and that of your clients, contact us or request a demo of Vaporstream.

Contributor- Galina Datskovsky