What Is Privacy
In today's data driven super-highway what is privacy? Major Tech Companies (Google, Meta, Apple, Microsoft) are aware of our every move and, almost, our every thought. Does it matter?
27 April 2026
One definition of the word privacy is:
The state of being free from public attention or unsanctioned intrusion.
The important phrase here being unsanctioned. How much of the online tracking carried out by big tech companies do we actually sanction and how much is done without our knowledge? Given Big Tech Companies tend to hide behind phrases like:
- Facebook Research App
- According to "The New Economy", Facebook paid teenagers (as young as 13) to install a "research" app that gave the company extensive access to phone data, browsing habits, and app usage. Marketed as "security research," it functioned as pervasive user tracking.
- iOS 17 & 18 (Apple)
- The Update: Introduced "mandatory security-telemetry channels" and expanded "App Privacy Report" data. While framed as "device health checks" and "crash reporting," these updates increased the granularity of data sent to Apple's cloud by default. This includes detailed usage metrics, app interaction logs, and performance data that can reconstruct user behavior patterns. The "opt-out" mechanism is often buried deep in settings, meaning most users remain on the "opt-in" (data collection) default.
- Windows 11 24H2 & 25H2 (Microsoft)
- The Update made cloud-based telemetry the default for "security-event monitoring" and integrated mandatory feeds for the AI-driven Copilot assistant. The "Device Insights" service transmits performance metrics and usage data to Microsoft. While enterprise admins can restrict this via MDM, the default consumer setting is full telemetry. which allows Microsoft to monitor not just system health, but user workflows, application preferences, and potentially sensitive data processed by the AI assistant, all under the banner of "improving security and performance."
People are aware that they are making choices about their privacy and people should be free to make those choices. But they must be based on sound knowledge and accurate information. Big Tech should not be allowed to mislead us into making the decisions they want us to make rather than those decisions that are best for us.
