'Privacy is a luxury in the digital world'

MUSCAT: In this social media era, privacy is a luxury and it is at the mercy of someone else, observes Dr Fatma bint Abdullah al Maqbaliyah of University of Technology and Applied Sciences (UTAS).
Speaking to the Observer on the sidelines of the Artificial Intelligence Security Conference held under the auspices of Eng Said bin Hamoud al Maawali, Minister of Transport, Communications and Information Technology, Dr Fatma said, 'Privacy has become a luxury, and keeping our personal details confidential from others has become a story of the past as one's personal data is exposed to many places. In today's world, we need to safeguard them for our sake.”
She believes that it is very easy to get the personal data of any person and if you want to connect with anyone, you have an ample number of apps to find out the whereabouts of the person.
'Today, every gadget is connected to the other. One's air conditioner is connected to the phone. Gadgets, washing machine, cooker, and even Alexa all are connected to your phone. Guess, a one-year-old child utters 'google' along with 'mama' or 'baba' as her first words. This shows how much they are exposed to social media just as we are used to and they cannot be detached from the virtual world,' she adds.
The solution is, according to Dr Fatma, not to let others know your life whereabouts, your travel details, and your shopping data, as your card details can be easily extracted from the wallet, and your kids names, etc should be kept secret from the public platforms. Keep one’s personal account, name, data, and other personal information private.
“It is always better to have a preventive measures before any cyber attack happens.'
Phishing is on the rise due to the fact that Omani nationals are very kind and they are vulnerable to cyber attacks by opening the links and sharing the personal details on phone, especially from senior citizens. Sometimes, you get a message to open a photo and there you are. You will soon be subject to a cyber attack which has been on the rise since the introduction of AI,” said Dr Fatma.