Internet privacy and anonymity has always been the number 1 topic of discussion for individuals and business organizations worldwide. The need for having a secure and private internet connection is very important mainly because of the multiple risk factors and threats prevalent online. The recent outcome of scandals, privacy invasion, manipulation, data stealing, etc. have created a major cause of concern for individuals and business organizations. Many countries have developed privacy laws and have even come up with awareness programs and research materials for internet users to understand more clearly about privacy and anonymity. Some of the large multinational companies who are mainly involved in handling confidential user data such as Facebook, Google and many more have come under serious allegations over the way they handle private user data. Let us now have a look at some of the opinions posted by online privacy experts about the state of online privacy in 2019. There are lot of questions in the minds of an internet user

1. Colin Truran – Principal technology strategist at Quest

As far as Truran is concerned, online privacy and anonymity has been a cause of concern since 2007. The need and importance of privacy must evolve in accordance to the changing internet landscape. From his point of view, instead of declaring a day for data privacy and anonymity awareness, he insists on declaring 28th of January for businesses to be accountable for their data privacy and anonymity practices. He also wants business organizations to use this day for publishing details on how they use the customer data. Colin Truran concludes by stating that by announcing this day as Data privacy day and by becoming transparent, customers can have all the information necessary to understand the privacy situation on offer more precisely. By this way, we can eliminate data misuse, corruption and much more.

2. Dr. Eric Cole – Scientist – Former Obama cyber security advisor, CIA analysts, CTO and SVP at McAfee

Online surveillance and data activity monitoring is always on the rise and because of this, internet privacy and security of individuals are put in harms’ way. Data activity monitoring is done extensively by social media sites, third parties, etc. The moment you sign up or subscribe for the services offered by any service provider online, you are either directly or indirectly agreeing to the usage of your confidential data by this company. Government authorities passing laws to govern these security threats never really understand the security and anonymity aspect of it. Any service provider who markets themselves by stating that they are offering a free service, literally this means that your information is going to be used for making revenue. European Union has passed GDPR which to a certain extent shows the commitment of the union towards individual user privacy and security. But in the case of US, things are not going the right way with lawmakers focusing solely on surveillance rather than individual privacy.

3. Gabriel Weinberg – Founder and CEO of DuckDuckGo, a privacy oriented search engine.

From Gabriels’ point of view, internet users generally don’t really want anything to hide but in reality they do not want any third parties or other business organizations to make use of the users’ confidential data and make profits. DuckDuckGo is becoming more and more popular amongst internet users which is mainly due to the demand for security and privacy amongst internet users. Governments also need to step in and increase scrutinies. Surveillance based businesses are no longer the norm since there are far better ways of doing business without compromising on privacy.

4. Spencer Young – Regional VP at Imperva

The widely talked after internet privacy and security norm of General Data Protection Regulation implemented by EU is one of the main reasons why privacy has taken a swift change in the last decade or so especially in the UK. Businesses need to comply with these laws failing to do will lead of hefty fines and brand image tarnish. From Spencers’ point of view, business organizations do not possess the necessary strength in terms of people, business, etc. to handle privacy strategies. Data Privacy Day should be celebrated in the best possible fashion by all coming forward to ensure that privacy is concerned serious and must have.

5. Alessandro Acquisti – Computer science professor at Carnegie Melton University.

Alessandro is one of the leading scientist and researcher of cyber security and data research. Cylab which is a research center for data security in the university. Under this, he did manage to research and develop a technology using which he was able to identify and correlate with head shot photos found on Facebook. From a single photograph, he was able to locate address, contact number, student location and in some cases, he was even able to find some part of social security numbers even. Such is the lack of security and anonymity in these social media sites and online platforms. If he was able to derive these complex data from a single picture, just imagine what an activity tracker or hacker would do to steal all the valuable information possessed by a user. We have so far discussed about some of the expert opinions on the state of online privacy and anonymity in 2019. Considering all of this, a general lack of internet security and privacy online is causing a serious concerns these days. Businesses, governments and all parties involved in ensuring online privacy should act fast.