Fingerprints that we leave
Before the supermarkets were ubiquitous, we had to shop for groceries in unregulated market where the price is never advertised. The price is determined based on how much we can shell out compared to what is the value of the product we are buying. For this reason we used to dress a little shabby and never use a car to arrive at a shop so we get a better advantage at negotiation, haggling was a way of life but we found a way out. Our identity many times works against us.
Growing up reading crime stories I always believed fingerprints were for criminals. It is something left behind by a criminal so that it is easy to trace back to the individual when required. Criminals then started masking the fingerprints through gloves and many other means to not leave a fingerprint.
In the modern days we leave fingerprints everywhere and it is being used against us by very clever people. Our identity is useful to others more than they are useful to us. This identity is used against us to coerce into actions that we never intended to do. In the physical world it was easy to mask an identity but in the online world it is so vast that it is too hard.
Here is a list that is known to me
Device fingerprinting — We are our devices, we carry our device any where and leave a lot of information in it. With a combination of many things like IP, cookies, apps it is possible to identify an individual with great precision.
Face recognition — Though the technology is not still widely used, it is being used to some degree. It is so easy nowadays to track a person, tag them and monitor. CCTV cameras are everywhere and we leave a huge trail everyday.
Voice fingerprinting — Humans may not be able to identify if someone else mimics a voice but computers can fingerprint a human based on the voice. Apps can keep collecting voice and identify accurately a person even if they modulate their tone.
Gait — I never thought that I can be identified by my walking gait. It was a shocking discovery than anything else; consider that I don’t speak in public, I wear a mask and do not carry my phone, I can still be identified.
Writing style — This is the ultimate of all, let us say we do not appear in public, do not carry any thing that identifies us, do not speak in any place but just write. The choice of words, grammar, length can also uniquely identify who we are.
This is just some things that I know about but enough to tell me the magnitude of the problem. Whatever it is, we as an individual will lose control of our identity.
