Throughout the movie, “Unfriended: Dark Web”, information privacy plays a big role since the characters struggle to protect themselves throughout the movie. When the characters in the movie are compromised, there is little they can do to stop their data from being used maliciously. Many of the characters don’t take any precautions to protect themselves in a dangerous situation which leads to more of their data getting stolen. When Matias uncovers the hidden files on the stolen computer he finds videos taken without people’s knowledge from their everyday household electronics. This is a testament to how poorly companies design their security for these devices even at such a high cost of purchase. We also see certain characters called the Charons from the dark web who hide their identity and information behind many different precautions. These villains seem invincible and without any weaknesses as they expose the privacy of others and stay hidden themselves. They protect their messages mostly through a program called “The River,” which spoofs the user’s location many times before connecting them to a secure chat room. This allows them to keep much of their communications and transactions out of the eyes of law enforcement or other conflicting parties. The Charons also used cryptocurrency to hide their transactions of large amounts.
In the movie, the information privacy rights of the characters are infringed upon. Privacy on the internet can be described as "the claim of individuals, groups or institutions to determine for themselves when, how, and to what extent information about them is communicated to others [1].” If there were more laws and regulations in place to protect their right to privacy or they had taken necessary precautions then these circumstances might have been avoided. Exposure of sensitive data is described as “For individuals, the exposure of personal data might lead to improper account charges, privacy intrusion or identity theft [2].” This is why privacy plays such an important role in today’s society and is needed to keep individuals safe. However, many companies don’t really care about your privacy as much as you think, as described as “Many businesses deal with data privacy long after implementing a business model and IT infrastructure [2].” This is obviously not for the best and society will need to change if privacy is to be taken seriously as many data breaches are already an afterthought. “Privacy does not exist without security, [2]” and therefore security should be the big focus of companies wanting to make their customers happy. Ultimately in some cases security and privacy becomes a responsibility for the consumer instead of the company.
Resources:
[1] Merri Beth Lavagnino is Chief Privacy Officer and Compliance Coordinator at Indiana University. “Information Privacy Revealed.” EDUCAUSE, https://er.educause.edu/articles/2013/1/information-privacy-revealed.
[2] Bigelow, Stephen J. “What Is Data Privacy? - Definition from Techtarget.com.” SearchCIO, TechTarget, 9 Aug. 2022, https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/data-privacy-information-privacy.