Who watches the watchers?
By David Tizzard
(0)(0).jpg?w=728)
It takes decades to build a reputation, and yet only a single cyber incident to bring the carefully constructed house of USBs tumbling down. And so, “If you want to keep a secret, you must also hide it from yourself”. These were the words of George Orwell in his influential depiction of a dystopian secret surveillance state, “1984.”
The digital realm has become a battlefield on which its combatants use codes and keyboards instead of daggers and dynamite. Social media postings have become matters of espionage capable of tampering in the democratic elections of sovereign states; upvotes on portal sites such as Naver have become the cause of intense political discussion following the Druking scandal that surfaced a few weeks ago; and Cambridge Analytica operates not as a debating club for posh young English toffs but rather a data collection and mining agency with links to Steve Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart News.
Following on from land, sea, air and space, war now exists in a fifth domain: cyberspace. Both the mouse and the keyboard have been elevated beyond simple input devices to weapons capable of wreaking havoc at the individual, national and international level. One of the clearest examples of this came with the revelation that the malicious computer worm known as Stuxnet was used to target Iranian nuclear facilities.
The Institute for Science and International Security (those of the now rather unfortunate acronym) reported that Stuxnet was responsible for destroying about 1,000 centrifuges at the heavily guarded Natanz Nuclear Facility in Iran between November 2009 and January 2010. Many of the leading cyber-security experts suggest that this incredibly powerful and devastating computer virus could have only originated from one place: the world's digital superpower, America.
The Asian Games to be held in Jakarta and Palembang in August this year should be a cause for great celebration and unity among the region. However, organizers are already expressing concerns over potential cyber-attacks citing the “Olympic Destroyer” virus that hit the PyeongChang Winter Olympics here during the opening ceremony. Many believe Russia was behind the digital strike that affected television signals, Wi-Fi and the ticketing systems hosted on the official servers.
We are fortunate enough not to be working at a state-owned Chinese enterprise with hats measuring our brain waves, anxiety or sadness as was widely reported late last month. But that doesn't mean we are truly safe. Individuals in society carry with them in their pockets and bags potential weapons and threats in the shape of smartphones, tablets and laptops. And where these exist, money will never likely be far behind.
In June 2013, the Financial Times created a unique calculator capable of ascertaining the worth and value of each user's data. Taking the basic data points that Facebook users provide voluntarily, such as gender, age and location, as well as other elements including relationship status, family size, fitness and travel preferences, ownership of cars and so on, a profile is built and then a monetary value attached.
With over 2,130,000,000 global users on the site, Facebook is easily capable of earning hundreds of millions of dollars through ad revenue and selling data to those wishing to run targeted campaigns based on the digital profiles the company has built up and created. And even if you don't use Facebook, your browser, your installed fonts and the screen resolution devices installed all work as digital fingerprints tracking you wherever you go. If you're not paying for the product, you are not the customer. You are the product being sold: “Freedom is slavery.”
We also have to consider that all of this surveillance and observation, the targeted ads, the watching cameras and the digital detectives might actually be good for us. After all, national security and the lives of our loved ones are of great importance. The 2015 attack in San Bernardino, America, brought to light such questions when the FBI and Apple ended up in court over whether government departments were able to force private companies to give up users' data.
But wait, there is possibly some hope. On May 25 the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into effect and any company that handles the data of European Union residents will have to comply with this new set of data privacy measures. It was officially approved two years ago but now the transition period has come to an end and a whole host of regulations will be applied to companies, as well as heavy fines for non-compliance. The most important thing about the GDPR is that it will also affect firms and businesses in Silicon Valley and Korea if they have the data of EU citizens.
“The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better,” wrote Orwell. And he was largely correct in that observation. He just hadn't considered all the online adverts we would have to deal with.
David Tizzard (datizzard@swu.ac.kr) is an assistant professor at Seoul Women's University and host of TBS eFM's cultural radio show "A Little of a Lot." The show can be heard every Sunday from 4 p.m.-6 p.m. on 101.3 FM or downloaded via online platforms such as iTunes and Podbang.