Can tech be bad for you?

With all the advancements in technology over the past decade – be it more powerful computers, smartphones, miniature cameras or an increased reliance on social media – there are those who’d rather abuse than use new tech tools.

For example, texting is a fast, reliable and cheap means of communication – but scammers are using it to trick cell phone users out of their hard-earned money. GPS navigation can help you get from point A to point B, but how do you know if your movements are being monitored via your smartphone? Video games can be a fun stress-reliever but might some titles desensitize kids to gratuitous violence? And while Facebook is an effective way to share info and photos with your circle of friends, cyberstalkers, pedophiles and thieves can also use the medium for harm.

You get the idea.

For all the good technology brings to society, there are those who use the same tools for illegal or immoral purposes.

Is it human nature?

“Despite the fact that new technologies are always introduced with the best intentions of their designers and engineers, it’s only a matter of time before someone figures out how to use them in a less-than-honourable manner,” says Carmi Levy, a London, Ont.-based independent technology analyst.

“Human nature is sadly just as capable of using technology for malicious purposes as it is for utopian ones — unfortunately for all of us, it’s easier now than at any point in history, too.”

Michelle Warren, founder and president of MW Research & Consulting in Toronto, agrees with Levy on how much easier it is today to abuse technology: “Reasonable price points mean it is easy for anyone to jump onboard, simple and easy-to-use software means that people don’t have to be tech geniuses, and smaller devices mean they are easily hid from sight.”

Social media at the forefront

Warren says Facebook – now with more than 600 million accounts — is often at the centre of privacy issues today. “People just don’t recognize – generally and collectively speaking – the importance of security and privacy. Users don’t realize that photos uploaded to Facebook become the property of Facebook, that anything stored online, remains online,” Warren adds. “Consider the expression, ‘what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’ — well, ‘what happens on Facebook, stays on Facebook,” she says.

“Ubiquitous social media platforms make it easier to touch ever larger audiences,” confirms Levy. “Platforms like Facebook and Twitter are like dreams come true for those who want to make life miserable for as many people as possible.”

Levy says  lax privacy standards [can lead to] theft of user data. Scammers hack Twitter accounts to launch phishing attacks on unsuspecting users. And hackers harvest keystrokes and steal the virtual keys to our online accounts.

“We’ve become so naive about new technologies — believing their utopian promises virtually without question — that we often forget to ask how they can be misused,” believes Levy. “Instead of breathlessly listening to company claims of better, faster and cheaper, we should be asking ourselves if these new wonder gadgets and services also come with a dark side.”

What to do?

Understanding how technology can be misused – and taking precautions to reduce the threat – is part of the solution.

Education is key, says Warren, and hopefully before it’s too late. “I suspect that people need to experience something nasty in order to have it reach home. Consider when we experience our PC being hacked, that is when we realize the significance of anti-virus software — it seems that there is a similar approach with privacy issues, generally speaking.”

“No technology should be adopted, introduced or deployed until this kind of due diligence is performed,” maintains Levy.

Every technology comes with its own array of potential uses and misuses, but by “understanding the ways these tools can be misappropriated, appropriate steps can be taken to eliminate the threat,” or at least mitigate the damage from malicious use, Levy adds.