How secure is your online data?

Anywhere where you want to use an online service nowadays, you have to create an account to use the service. And when you create an account you must accept the terms and conditions of the service or website. Because there are online services that you almost cannot ignore, you have to surrender to the rules of the online services. There are hardly escape clauses, and if there are, it takes a lot of effort to use them. For example, if you have a smartphone with Andriod, you need a Google account and for an iPhone is an Apple account is required.

The services track everything you do and this data are stored in their database. Services like Google use this data for targeted advertisement. It allows them to generate revenues for the company. The information is also used to improve the user experience.
If old information wouldn’t be deleted, it will be stored forever. When you realize how much the Internet has grown in the past five years, and is still growing, what will it be like in the next five years. We are very focused on collecting data and imagine how much data the company will have gathered about you in five or ten years. Maybe you don’t care they gather information about you or that you trust the company that they don’t do anything wrong with it.

But how safe are your data online anyway? The data seem to be stored in a database that is protected by encryption software. But you as a user actually don’t know how your data are protected. And sometimes your personal data are not that secure, as the companies want you to believe. There are plenty examples of data leaks over the years. It happened to Sony a few years ago, when data of 77 million users were stolen. Or look at last year when hackers obtained access to information of approximately 152 million Adobe customers.

The security of a database appears to be solid, malleable and flexible like a balloon. Clowns know what to do with balloons; they use them to make different figures. As long as you don’t exert too much pressure, you can do a lot with it before it breaks. The only problem with a balloon is that they are vulnerable for leaks. If there is a tiny leak in the balloon, the balloon will explode and all the data in the balloon will be visible. Leaks are made by hackers to steal sensitive data. Users lose the security of their data. And unlike a flat tire, an exploded balloon can’t be fixed.
 

source: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/worlds-biggest-data...