Many large firms in the Internet industry are holding a large amount of private information from numerous people. Despite its benefit of allowing people to use these companies’ services without any cost, their data may be leaked, and they potentially lose more money through online swindling. Due to such reasons, I believe that the benefits are outweighed by the disadvantages.
Granted, one may argue that by providing individuals’ private details, they will have the capacity to use certain services for free. This can be observed in the case of some ubiquitous social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, in which everything needed is just creating accounts after filling in customers’ private information like home address, contact number, and so on. However, having a full capacity to use these services without any cost may lead to a potential threat of data leakage. This is potentially rooted in these Internet companies or organizations’ lack of security in information storage, resulting in the leaking of customers’ data. Take, Facebook, for example, which faced a significant tide of objection from its own users due to their exposed information online in 2021. Specifically, stemming from a user in a low-level hacking forum, the phone numbers and personal data of hundreds of millions of Facebook users were published for free because of, according to Facebook’s spokesperson, the vulnerability of its information storage.
Additionally, individuals may face the potential of swindling. The reason for this is that by taking advantage of leaked data online, which can be easily seen in the case of Facebook, scammers may hoodwink a plethora of people. To illustrate, in Vietnam, there are many cases in which victims reported that they received a call from a person who claimed that they luckily won a prize and needed some money to achieve that. Obviously, these hapless individuals received nothing after transferring money. Furthermore, this raises concerns about the potential threats posed by the concentration of private data among major enterprises in the Internet industry. The risks associated with this concentration may outweigh the benefits of using these firms’ services for free.
In conclusion, in spite of the advantage of using their services for free, some enterprises in the Internet industry may not ensure the security of their customer private information, resulting in data leakage. Additionally, swindling may be an alarming concern among users in the case of their data leaked. Considering these factors, my viewpoint is that the advantages are outstripped by the disadvantages.