Privacy ...A word that is almost extinct

Privacy A word that is almost extinct... The end of privacy in the digital world is the result of the increasing erosion of the barriers that once protected personal life in the context of technology. With the expansion of the internet, social networks and connected devices, the amount of data generated by individuals has skyrocketed. This data, from consumption habits to real-time locations, is collected, stored and often monetized by companies and governments, often without the explicit consent or full understanding of users. 

The emergence of generative AI and its hunger for data to train models has made this scenario even more explicit.

All of our online steps leave permanent traces. On average, a person connected to the internet generates an impressive amount of information daily. For example, studies show that, in 2023, a typical smartphone user produced around 1.5 GB of data per month in network traffic alone. This includes browsing, streaming and applications. But the digital trail goes far beyond that, as it encompasses everything you click, search, post, like or even hesitate before deciding.

Social media amplifies this volume. An active user on X, for example, can generate dozens or hundreds of interactions per day (posts, likes, retweets), each recorded with metadata such as time, location and device. Google, for its part, processes around 99,000 searches per second globally, and each search contributes to a profile that can already contain thousands of data points about a person, from what you search for to the time you spend reading results.

In addition, digital culture has changed expectations of privacy. People voluntarily share intimate details on social media, while devices such as virtual assistants and home security cameras capture audio and video in spaces previously considered inviolable. The combination of voluntary exposure and involuntary collection creates a scenario where the concept of the “private sphere” is increasingly blurred.

The prevailing trend is towards a world where privacy, as we once knew it, seems like a luxury of the past, replaced by convenience, connectivity and an inescapable sense of enforced transparency.