Now along comes the potential creative destruction brought by a different
distribution methodology, the Internet.
-
Barry Diller
Abstract
Since, past 10 years the Internet has taken over the world and it's still
increasing. Data is the most demanded thing. Also the country needs strong laws
for data protection after the threat to Right to Privacy, adoption of technology
is must in every sector for growth. The Data Protection Bill was introduced in
2019 after GDPR in Europe and a separate committee will be formed for
management. Social media channels are using people and making lives more
depressed.
Our human psychology is used against ourselves. You haven't realised
that you are now a slave of social media, any negative information spreads 6
times faster than the positive one. Everything is negative on social media right
now , the internet can either create or destroy anyone even experts like Elon
Musk have said AI is a demon also some experts claim that wrong usage of it can
end up as a civil war.
Introduction
What's the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning? Exercise,
meditation, brushing your teeth or taking a bath? If we were living in the early
2000s this would have made sense but in 2020 it doesn't make sense to me either.
It's not wrong if I say before sleeping we use our smartphones, when we wake in
the middle of our sleep, we use mobile phones and lastly after waking up in the
morning the first thing that we do you all very well know.
Since the past 10
years internet has taken the prime place in the lives of every people according
to 2019 statistics 3.6 billion people in the world is using internet right now
that accounts almost half of the population even if we talk about our very own
country India it is the second largest country using internet as per 2019 census
it went to boom after 2016 JIO effect that made internet services flow like a
water our lives are getting comfortable and lenient day by day technology and AI
are resolving all our problems right now one cannot imagine their life without
the use of Internet whether its studies, businesses, entertainment, gaming etc
cannot possible without the use of it even though the research article that you
are reading right now would not have happened without the use of internet.
If you think about past 10-15 years ago how eagerly we wanted this time to
arrive where everything is data driven, reduced or no human efforts, machines
solving our daily life problems and making humans life more comfortable whether
its shopping of groceries, purchasing cloth related stuff, accessories or
everything that you can imagine is now on internet so our lives has become what
we want it to become so we are supposed to be happy right? But ask yourself, are
you really happy with your life right now?
In the comparison with 2010 and 2020
human interaction is reduced to almost half even though the family sitting on a
dining table for dinner don't interact with each other every member of the
family not only the kids even the parents got busy on their phones, In this era
people don't appreciate each other presence and compliments but purchasing likes
and followers with money only to impress the people they don't even know.
Read
the last sentence again and you will relate with it! And even after impressing
ask those people are they themselves are not happy because then arrives a thing
called comparison with competitors that make them more depressed because no
matter how wealthy, famous, rich, fit, good looking you are there's always
someone somewhere virtuous than you and you can never win this race so its
better you should stop comparing yourself with other in any of basis because
that's only harming your own mental health.
Also nowadays one thing that is very common in businesses and startups that is
they spend huge and huge amount on marketing, branding and PR teams, separate
teams and agencies for social media marketing are hired but pay less attention
and make their content, product and service the second or latter priority but
that should be considered as the first one your marketing will only work as long
as your product/service/content is engaging and satisfying people all they knew
that internet is changing game that's right but only to limited boundation and
here's the point where many startups and businesses fail for example if you are
opening a restaurant then your prime concern should be on food quality and
service/hospitality but instead of that you are spending on marketing obviously
your venture will fail.
Data is a new oil
If you deeply observe your surroundings and compare the above quote you yourself
agree with this:
Data is the new oil, the new commodity that is helpful and
effective in smooth functioning as stated above technology is changing game in
the upcoming decade people will run for data even right now you can notice in
2019 elections BJP had purchased data from tech companies like Paytm and Phonepe
for winning over the elections and even though all your activities, your
political views and beliefs are decided through the internet you are watching
what they made you watch and obviously their IT cell will always make you watch
good about themselves and deficient about the others and many other examples of
data leaking are there, right now if you are using internet or have smartphones
in your pockets operating different applications like WhatsApp, Facebook, G-mail
into it you are under the surveillance of these big companies and once your data
is sold out you'll be in their radar too and even though if you think there is
a privacy maintained then I suggest you to rethink about it. After Right to
Privacy (9 judge bench has ruled that Indians will enjoy the right to privacy as
amended in ARTICLE 21 of the constitution also in December 2019 Data Protection
Bill was introduced in parliament house) has come up as a fundamental right
then you can only hope that things will get sorted in future.
Data - Oil to run Digital Economy
World is transforming day by day and if you want to evolve then it must move in
the direction where the world is going or else your growth will be in halt. A
daily small change will lead to a big effect one day from small private mediocre
to big companies to government. Everything now is data driven and it's necessary
to grow in terms of everything.
Digital Darwinism is the evolution of consumer's behaviour when society and
technology evolve faster than your ability to adapt.
According to theory of digital Darwinism it depends upon consumer behaviour,
society and technology and its very much appropriate even if you look past 15-20
years back big companies like BSNL, MTNL, Videocon existed that was ruling the
market at once but only because these companies were failed to adapt themselves
and evolve with time and technology today their existence is almost vanished and
also NOKIA happens to be a very good example of this thing.
Nowadays data is treated as the corporate asset that should be secured and used
widely, good/accurate data is a need of an hour to move in a right direction and
on right path, also industry experts, big business and corporate leaders and
even economists have concluded that instead of oil consider data as the most
valuable resource in the world.
Even though in the scenario of COVID-19 you can notice that oil was not at all
demanded essential commodity the value of oil reserves declined but it's
completely a different story when it comes to data, it became the most demanded
thing during COVID period, the world information regarding Health, Monetary,
Safety disputes, Medical requirements data etc. proved to be the prime need and
this graph will tend to increase with increase in technology and science.
Data protection in India
Hey, what happened to my online identity? You must be concerned about it, you
should have questions like this in your mind but you don't know whom you should
ask this. Whatever you are uploading on the internet is it safe hands or not?
Have you ever asked yourself who runs the internet?
In this article all of your questions and queries will be solved, whether it's
big companies like Tesla, Tata, Reliance, Jaguar or any other XYZ company
everyone now has their internet presence. Their own data was not in safe hands.
Once Mark Zuckerberg Said to senator that:
I need stricter European-style
privacy laws also praised GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) the law aims
to give users more control and access to their data and also some of the clauses
like right to delete and access the data but privacy experts of Europe said in
criticism that these laws will only help Zuckerberg's Facebook and is concerned
less about protecting individuals.
When Tesla got to know that data on Facebook isn't in right hands, they removed
all of their Facebook presence and some other big companies took the same
step.
In India if we talk about the Data protection in 2018 a committee was formed
under Justice Shrikrishna known as Shri Krishna committee to draft a bill on
recommendation of Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Electronics and Information
Technology and after taking an year they presented it on 11th December 2019 the
bill is being presented by Joint parliamentary committee in consultations with
experts and stakeholders.
Let me explain this bill to you all.
PDA (Personal Data Protection Bill/Act) is introduced after the Europe GDPR
according to this draft Data means and includes representation of information,
facts, concepts, opinions or instructions in a manner suitable for
communication, interpretation or processing by human or by automated means (A.I).
Here data is divided into broad categories:
- Personal data
- Sensitive personal data
Personal Data means data about or relating to a natural person who is directly
or indirectly identifiable, having regard to any characteristic, trait,
attribute or any other feature of the identity of such natural person, or any
combination of such features, or any combination of such features with any other
information.
Sensitive personal data means data revealing, related or constituting of:
- Password
- Financial data
- Health related data
- Official identifier
- Sex life
- Sexual orientation
- Biometric data
- Genetic data
- Transgender status
- Intersex status
- Caste or tribe
- Religious political belief or affiliation
- Any other category of data specified by the authority under section 22
Basics terms used in the draft
Processing is relation to personal data, means an operation or set of
operations performed on personal data and may include operations such as
collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation,
alteration, retrieval use, alignment or combination, indexing, disclosure of
transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available restriction, erasure
or destruction.
Profiling means any form of processing your personal data that analyses or
predicts aspects concerning the behaviour, attributes or interest of data
principal.
Data fiduciary means any person including the state or the company, any
juristic entity or any individual who alone or in conjunction with determines
the purpose and means of processing of personal data.
Data processor means any person including the state or the company, any
juristic entity, or any individual who processes personal data on behalf of a
data fiduciary, but does not include any employee of the data fiduciary.
Law and provisions of the bill
Right to be forgotten
The data principle shall have the right to restrict or prevent continuing
disclosure of personal data by a data fiduciary related to the data principle
where such disclosure:
- Has served the purpose for which it was made or no longer necessary
- Was made on the basis of consent under section 12 and such consent has since
been withdrawn, or
- Was made contrary to the provisions of this act or any other law made by
parliament or any state legislature
Extra territorial jurisdiction
This bill contains a separate clause for territorial as well as extra
territorial jurisdiction covered under section 2 along the lines of GDPR
(General Data protection regulation). Furthermore horizontally applied to both
governmental and private sectors.
Companies in US trade groups like Visa, MasterCard and American express have
been protesting against the Indian central bank which states payment data should
be stored locally within 6 months.
State processing allowed for processing of data for states
Personal data may be processed if such processing is necessary for any function
of state and parliament legislature.
Personal data may be processed if such processing is necessary for the exercise
of any function of the state authorised by law for:
- The provision of any service or benefit to the data principle from the
state.
- The issuance of any certification, licence or permit for any other
action or activity of the data principle by the state.
Data Protection Authority of India
for the inspection of all the other things a separate body known as DPA will be
formed that will have meaningful power to monitor the provisions of the Data
Protection Bill.
Penalties levied if law is violated
- If data fiduciary doesn't follow through compliance requirements, it can be
fined up to 5 crore or 2% of its worldwide turnover, whichever is higher.
- (a) If it doesn't comply with standards for processing
personal or sensitive personal data it can be fined up to 15 crore or 5% of the total
worldwide turnover, or whichever is higher.
(b) Then there are a host of other penalties for more minor violations such as
refusing to comply with an individual's request (maximum Rest 5 lakhs).
How is the internet using our Psychology against us?
Do you people remember that 15-20 years ago people used to say that there will
be a time when machines will do all of your work and machines will run the world
that humans are running right now. You may get shocked after listening to this
but that reality is right now, we are living in the same era that was predicted
at that time. Reason why we haven't realised that thing yet is because no one
made us realize that not even those companies nor our governments. Right now by
October 2020 more than half of the world is using the internet right now. If
you are reading this article I am very sure that you must have applications like
WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter on your smartphone.
Just think for a
while you are using these apps or these apps using you. These smartphones and
applications have a lot to explore and go through which is not even productive
and helpful for you even by scrolling unnecessary feed on Instagram and Facebook
majority of the people spend their 5-6 crucial hours out of 24 hours a day just
to go through the content which even you don't know is genuine accurate and even
friendly for your mental health.
Nowadays social media apps are all about
running political agendas, spreading different religious, sociological and
political ideologies, running businesses (showing us ads that hit our
subconscious mind and make us reactive towards such things). According to
research only 4% of people are using the internet productively to grow and learn
new things to get prepared for the future self.
Even after knowing that you are
spending too much time of internet and smartphones still you can't resist
yourself from doing this that's why your mobile phone is the first thing you
choose even when you are not completely waked in morning, (here may be fault is
not yours people made themselves too much dependent on technology that even if
you ignore this technology or not upgrade yourself with time you'll be left
behind because even your work is mostly or almost done on these platforms.
There
is a very thin line between using it appropriately and misusing it. People don't
even know the correct difference between both the terms and when they start
doing it wrong, to know the correct method to use is necessary.
Social media isn't a tool that's just waiting to be used. It has its own goals
and has its own means of pursuing them.
-The
Social Dilemma (Netflix movie)
I would really advice you all to go and watch the movie Social Dilemma for
clear understanding of the things the above statement clearly highlights that
your social media accounts are not running according to you, they are running
according to these big companies by playing with our psychologies and our
subconscious minds, these companies are now the richest/wealthiest companies of
mankind.
People are paying to Facebook to get more views and engagements and
with the help of suggested feature Facebook is showing you content that you have
never even searched and you people still watch them this is not only limited to
this but these companies even know about your likes, dislikes, political views,
sexual preferences they very well know what to show you so that you keep
attached with the app and give your maximum time to it, also you are the target
audience of someone who is running business with Facebook/Instagram. Somewhere
and somehow people like you uploading things on the internet according to their
own beliefs and understanding and most things that are posted on social media is
fake/inappropriate and because of people partnering with Facebook you are
watching these things against your will.
You are being used against
yourself you might find this statement untrue but after a deep understanding of
things you'll get to know the reason. Let me give you an example of how smartly Facebook in engaging you even when you have decided to ignore it When you get
a notification on Facebook it comes to your notification bar like Mr X has
commented on your picture even though Facebook can easily show you the comment
itself in the notification bar but not doing it because they wanted you to open
the app and its very sure after reading that comment you may interact with Mr X
further and then someone may have uploaded their new story and now you are
watching those stories in a queue here watching and reacting to that comment
would not have taken more than 30 seconds but you have given more than 15
minutes to it, the layout of Facebook is designed in a way to keep you attached
with it and they are very much successful with their business model in every
terms. Now think how many times a day you do this thing? And answer who's
controlling whom?
How does the use of Social Media/ Internet make you more depressed?
There are only two industries that call their customers ‘users' illegal drugs
and software.
-
Edward Tufte
Past 20 years ago usage of the internet was termed as:
Escape from the real
world now after 20 years tables are turned now giving time to each other is
known as
Escape from the internet. Actually it's good as well as bad whenever
something happens it comes with both advantages and disadvantages, with the rise
in technology this is was most common and expected thing that this time will
come, people will grow, lives will get busier, with more intelligence and
knowledge people will become selective in their choices and preferences and even
after growing in life they leave things at back well that's the part of journey,
with more usage of smartphones, technology and internet it leads to less human
interaction everyone is busy counting views, likes and shares on their photos.
On these social media you may have 1000's of friends in your circles but in
reality just look how lonely you are that's the prime reason for depression and
anxiety, also mood swings are getting very common these days.
The prime reason for the depression and anxiety because of social
media is the sense of comparison that I have discussed earlier also
people compare their lives with their friends or known one's of what
they post of social media for instance
Your friend Mr Jay is travelling to Paris for vacations make you feel
jealous and then you develop a sense of contrast in your mind. Also when a guy
with six pack abs posts pictures on the beach with his girlfriend make you
people more resentful.
Here you get distressed because both of you are friends
and you are doing nothing like that in your social life but don't understand the
fact the everyone's life is different and everyone follows their own journey
what some of your friends having right now you may have it later or you'll have
even more better and in my opinion don't ever believe in what you see on social
media because here things are designed in a way to make you ask yourself
questions about you and secondly comparing yourself with anyone whether on
social media or in real life is worst you can do to affect your mental health.
The solution to deal with the problem of don't compare, make actual friends,
read books, play with your pet, spend time with loved ones and interact with new
people in real life not on messenger but don't keep any expectations from them
that they will like you or feel the same about you.
Also one more common problem with the online world is here people act very
differently to impress people but actually very different in real life and also
when it comes to looks and behaviour it is not what it's look like you can say
social media is a Bluff.
Social media has created jealous behaviour over
illusions. Sadly some are envious of things, relationships and lifestyles that
don't even exist. These are the lines said by the people who are working in
these social media companies. Yet there are many more examples to give with whom
you can connect with but I have made my point clear to all of you that How we
all are being fooled and used.
Where are we going wrong on the Internet?
While writing this article I am thankful to god that at least I am not the
complete belonging of the internet and social media era at least I have played
outdoor games and understand the importance and significance of making bonds in
reality not virtually.
According to me the worst thing that is happening virtually is spreading of fake
news that spreads six times faster than the genuine news and also political
parties running their agendas on social media's for winning elections instead of
investing amounts on countries they are spending it on marketing and the worst
thing that's happening is the spreading of religious biases
Caste for vote here
Vote your caste here
The purpose of elections is to make the reasonable and most genuine candidate
win not supporting your caste in the name of elections and now this thing is
very common on social networks also mocking each other castes and religious
beliefs is taking us towards the destruction or you can say civil war. The
2020 Delhi riots is the clear cut example of using the internet against religion
and also people protesting in America is a great example of spreading biases in
the name of religion, caste, colour and creed.
The worst thing about internet
and mainstream media is that we the people of this world don't even know whether
we are moving forward or backward, whether it's a big company, a government organisation, political parties or any xyz individual everyone posts things here
according to their own wish and agenda and even the news channels do the same
thing. It has become very difficult to judge what's wrong and what's right and
it will be considered as the foolish act to blindly follow the things without
considering Pro's and Cons of it like people do here, keeping and supporting
political ideologies are good things shouldn't be done blindly the ability to
understand the difference between right and wrong and taking stand on it is a
need of an hour that's missing and even you the one who is reading this article
cannot deny this fact.
The Delhi riots started with just the silent protest that has taken place in the
Jamie Millia Islamia, even the constitution has given you right to protest and
yet it was transformed into riots only because of misuse of internet, the
immeasurable amount of bitterness was spread against each other religions and as
result you can see 100 crores of property was lost of people during this act.
Even at the time of India and china clash Indian media whether mainstream or
social media everyone was busy bashing china but they don't know the fact that
world's social media and internet and Indian news channels are banned in china
then why everyone is busy in doing this and also in the case of COVID-19 all the
fear, panic, hate for different countries, community hatred was spread only
because of the inappropriate use of social media platforms.
Even though the data
of number of deaths, number of recovered cases we have received from different
countries what's the assurance that its true and accurate and what's the reality
behind china and its link with Coronavirus and this is not the first time when
any virus was spreaded but surely the first virus to be spreaded in the Internet
era, Just think how internet and social media has made COVID-19 a sensation and
left the world in panic and fear, your every wrong single share, repost, retweet
and forwards affects someone's mental health, wealth and their state of mind so
badly.
Opinions of Experts in Internet and AI
On asking Elon Musk where it will all end and what new challenges will AI and
technology bring? To that question Musk replied:
With artificial intelligence we
are summoning the demon. You know all the stories where there's the guy with the
pentagram and holy water it's like, yeah, he's sure he can control the demon.
Didn't work out.
MIT, 2014
Musk also characterized super smart robots as the
Deadliest, even more
dangerous than the nuclear weapons, even donated $10 Million to Future of Life
Institute, an organization whose mission is to make sure that AI should not harm
humans. Even though big names like Steve wozniak and Stephen Hawking agreed with
the same, Now the readers must imagine their place and circumstances that even
the people who known for beyond thinking are scared of AI and technology even
though if you have read the whole article you have understood my point that:
How are lives being controlled by technology and internet how people are
becoming slaves of social media channels and even though after knowing all these
things We are failed in resisting its use. Elon Musk the Billionaire Futurist
also said :
We are likely living in a video game. Are we? The video game is
coded by robots with high intellect, I request all the readers to think about
this and you cannot deny this fact.
Why we should be scared of the Internet, AI and social media platforms
Internet, AI, Social media and technology is demand of time and future to move
ahead in life it's very necessary for everyone but things get wrong when we hear
that 14 year old kids getting depressed over few likes, teens mocking each other
on internet, boys giving rape threats to girls for the short wears but all these
destructions are limited to extent. Things where we should worry is that people
haven't designed this technology even the technology is designing themselves day
by day! You must be thinking that:
I am wrong but in an interview, Software
developers, Coders, Data scientists and even the head of IT departments who are
working in these big companies like Facebook, Google have themselves claimed
this fact that is these offices there are huge rooms where super computers and
servers are being placed and they are controlling, managing, upgrading and
evolving themselves. Coders and designers have done their job but the fact is
they don't know how all these servers are working even they don't know how these
codes are developing themselves even though the features you must be enjoying
right now are not developed by humans and are designed by machines themselves.
Tristan Harris an American computer scientist, the founder of Centre of
Humane Technology worked as a Design Ethicist at Google also appeared in the
Social Dilemma documentary said:
The Platform that connects us also controls us
and as per my opinion he is right. Also nowadays social media is all about
negativity favouring only one's opinion and views, also no one knows the
agendas, aims and goals of those machines and servers who are right now
controlling us and as per the predictions made by experts, philosophers and
ideologists that it will end up as a civil war and mass level of destruction and
it has started last year by the end of 2019 when fights, disputes and panic have
started everywhere in the world.
Conclusion
If you have read the above article I don't think there is anything left that I
haven't explained and anything that is not cleared to you. Still if you are
reading this your article you yourself witnessed all the destructions and wrongs
that has happened because of Internet, Technology and Artificial Intelligence,
all the technologies and inventions are done to reduce human efforts to bring
comforts to people or solve the problems that people are facing, if you are
successful is solving the problems then you are in the game or maybe you have
won the game.
Think for making profit, for becoming fortunate is it a worthy
action to play with human psychologies and keep people attached to
your business venture to give maximum time to your platform. Well I
agree all the businesses are directly or indirectly related with
psychologies, needs, wishes and pain points, I am not wrong if if
say that we ourselves click to the ad on
How to be a
millionaire in 30 days even they played with their mind to get attention
and maximum views on their landing page though we are talking about the
wealthiest companies of mankind. Even if you are a person of a sound mind and
have common sense you yourself know that it is impossible to become a
billionaire in 30 days but still clicked with curiosity that is anything that we
don't know.
This is something that these big companies are doing over the years that general
people never knew about, we have become adaptive to it and I assure you even
after reading this article many people will fail in reducing the use of
smartphones and so called social media channels because now it's your habit. But
the thing which one can do is to use Social media, Internet and AI for good
purposes, use it for educating yourself or someone and don't spread any kind of
negativity and most specially any type of propagandas whether political,
religious, cultural or economic should get completely banned even if you are
posting some content try to be neutral in your terms and don't follow
unnecessary pages and accounts be in the touch of your known one's only and stay
away from the irrelevant and catchy content because its designed in a way to
keep your attracted with it and use your phone only during the free time, don't
separately take out your time to use it and also avoid it in between doing work.
If you are not growing in terms of knowledge, money and skills you are using
everything wrong, the way it shouldn't be used. In my closing statement I would
like to say that everything is clear in front of you and now the decision is up
to you whether you want to grow with its use or want to get destroyed with
others.
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