I think we are currently in the most beneficial and rosy era of technology. We share what we want, we sign up for most sites we come across and give away our private information, and most importantly, we don't care about most things.
I believe a major shift in technology and the digital world will happen sooner or later.
The first danger I want to mention is that a company could emerge that makes money by selling people's private information for a paltry price. When this first happens, almost nobody will care; most people won't sell their information for such a low price but, that's not the real point of this company.
The company may create a huge archive of the information it buys, and people may pay to access this archive, so it's like legally selling information to other people. But this information isn't just things like phone numbers and email addresses; it can include photos, videos, and even other verifiable evidence.
This phenomenon will snowball in a few years as the accumulated knowledge within the company grows and both the number of people selling their knowledge and those buying it will increase. That's not the only problem; there will also be those who sell other people's information and photos, without their knowledge or consent, in order to make money.
As this situation progresses, it's also possible for people to secretly take photos and videos of individuals they only know by name and try to sell them. The company will most likely pay a very small amount but since collecting and selling information is easy, accumulating it will also be easy. Just like throwing a plastic water bottle into a recycling machine and earning money.
People will realize the danger as time goes on and when they see content about themselves without selling or sharing their own information. Although currently this issue seems to be limited to some companies selling their customers' information, there are actually similar things happening even now. They are very limited and still in their infancy.
I don't want to say anything definitively because this might not lead to any legal consequences in the future. But even if it doesn't become a legal matter, people will inevitably find out, they will want to look into other people's information out of curiosity and they will become involved in this rapidly growing phenomenon.
Even if such a business model were initially permitted under certain legal conditions, stricter regulations would likely emerge as its risks became more apparent. However, completely preventing unauthorized data collection could remain extremely difficult.
At least, that's my prediction. Because of the personal data economy, you might not even want to share photos on social media. It may seem too early to talk about many things but I think now is the perfect time; preventing something before it happens is the best approach.
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