Has modern technology become the "big brother" that keeps us under its piercing eye?

Who does not remember the movie "Eagle Eye", produced in 2008, directed by Dr.

NS.

Caruso, starring Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan, where the film speaks in a dramatic way about the US government's creation of a sophisticated electronic espionage system using artificial intelligence, and its goal is to spy on humans in every movement they make anywhere and anytime.

Light and darkness

What used to be science fiction now appears to be a reality; Modern technology has made our lives much easier than it used to be. We all use smartphones and laptops, watch movies and videos on demand whenever we want to, buy almost any type of product online, and even meet our friends and colleagues in virtual worlds. But this convenience also has its dark side.

This "dark side" is called mass surveillance, as the same technology that makes our lives easier and more comfortable is used to monitor us at almost every step we take, by integrating microchips and smart chips into every gadget or device we use, as well as street cameras that record the movement of our cars Which are originally computers on wheels, in addition to facial recognition technologies even in low-quality photos, and all this happens while artificial intelligence analyzes all the personal data collected by our smartphones that we carry with us throughout the day.

Has modern technology with its huge data and tremendous analytical capabilities become the "big brother" that keeps us under constant scrutiny?

How does that affect our lives?

A new study conducted by researchers from the University of Edinburgh in cooperation with scientists from Trinity College Dublin in Ireland recently revealed that 6 types of “Android” phones that are widely popular around the world collect large amounts of data and information and share it without the knowledge of users with third parties. other.

The information and data of any person is important and valuable data even if that person does not think so, for example, would you have acted in the same way with one of your close ones if you knew that there was a third person watching you, watching and hearing everything you do and say?

Scientists involved in the research expected that major phone manufacturers would share some data and communications with OS developers, but the amount of data that was shared and transferred was much higher than expected, something that shocked them deeply.

The researchers examined operating systems (OS) developed by Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei, Realme, LineageOS and The team looked at the data collected and transmitted by these devices, and focused their research on situations in which the user does not expect to be tracked or spy on what he is doing, such as when the phone is idle.

The researchers found that all of these devices compile a comprehensive list of all the apps installed on them and send the information and data that these apps detect to the operating system developer, and even other third parties.

GPS applications can tell companies where they went and the type of transportation they use (communication sites)

The apps monitor everything

Apps occupy half the space of our phones, and they can tell a lot about our users, keeping track of all our interests and actions. For example, mental health apps can tell advertisers how we feel, and GPS apps can tell companies where they've gone and what kind of transportation they use. It's all highly sensitive data, yet companies like Google, Samsung, Xiaomi and Huawei collect long-lived device identifiers and user-resettable advertising identifiers, and share them with developers and advertisers without users' knowledge or consent.

Professor Doug Leith (one of the research participants) says, “I think we have completely lost control of the massive and continuous data collection process about us by our phones. During the research we focused heavily on cookies and bad behavior applications, and we hope that "Our work is a wake-up call to the public, politicians and law enforcement. There is an urgent need to take aggressive and targeted action to give people real control over the data on their phones."

Someone might say that what these companies are doing is illegal.

Well, this saying didn't read the fine print that is hard for human eyes to read about the terms of use of their phones, the big tech companies have covered themselves, and in this crazy world data is dollars, and it's all that matters to these companies.