Google Maps shows you the fastest route, ChatGPT answers your questions, voice messages spare you the effort of typing. That’s convenient — and a little unsettling: your digital traces together form a more accurate profile than you might want to reveal.
Anika Hannemann researches data privacy and AI at ZHAW. She explains which data we underestimate and how seemingly harmless individual data points can combine into a detailed profile. Even though we’re aware of the risks, we rarely change our behavior. This phenomenon is known as the Privacy Paradox. Convenience almost always wins — partly because we simply underestimate certain types of data. Your voice, for example, works like a fingerprint and can be replicated with uncanny realism using very little material. The consequences range from personalized advertising and political manipulation to identity theft and eerily convincing deepfake calls from supposed relatives.
Anika Hannemann conducts research at the ZHAW on privacy and security in AI and responsible AI. She is a member of SCRAI (Swiss Centre for Responsible AI).
Further Links
- SCRAI (Swiss Centre for Responsible AI): A think-and-do tank dedicated to the responsible development and societal orientation of artificial intelligence systems
- Language models instead of ChatGPT
- LUMO (Proton)
- Le Chat Mistral
- Maps instead of Google Maps
- Search engines instead of Google
- Email and Cloud instead of Google/Microsoft
- Messenger instead of WhatsApp
- Bye-bye Big Tech: A newsletter from Republik to become more digitally independent in five weeks without sacrificing convenience