3.4 What Is the Worst That Can Happen?

people: who is alone, who is on vacation, which house is empty, which elderly people bought jewellery, etc. Recent studies suggest that 78% of burglars use social media to find their targets [3]. These burglars use social media to find pictures of homes, or even pictures of house keys [33], to see whether potential targets are on vacation, to find their daily routines, and to see whether they have checked in at a restaurant. All this information can be used in order to find the most promising targets and when is the best time to rob them. One might be tempted to think “Oh! I do not post such information online, thus I am safe.” We are afraid that this is far from true. Indeed, several of the apps in our smartphones (and especially those that have access to our GPS coordinates) know where we are. They know if we are on vacation, they know which restaurant we are in, they know when we leave home, they know when we return, etc. The fact that we do not post such information in social media does not mean that this information is not recorded online by several different actors who have access to it. And, as we have said, if some information is collected online, it may later be shared, sold, or even stolen.

It seems that most people are not aware of these dangers. As a result, they do not seek anonymity and they expose themselves to malicious actors out there: burglars, robbers, or even killers! For example, recent research on 350 homicides suggests that before murdering their victims killers stalk their victims in social media [198]. These examples suggest that this lack of anonymous interaction, in which several people engage, may lead to serious damage: theft, loss of property, and even loss of life!

3.4 What Is the Worst That Can Happen?

We are afraid that the impact on society will be much greater than what has been described so far. If anonymity is completely lost, it will be like living in a world where each and every activity of ours is being monitored all the time. This will be like living in a “Big Brother-like” dystopian society, where each and every action will be monitored and recorded. And the worst part of all is that we do not really know who is recording it and who has access to this information. Is it an advertiser who wants to know what colour of shoes we like? Is it a crime gang that would like to know which elderly people recently bought jewellery? Is it the government of a hostile country that would like to know the daily routine of the people in our country and possibly bug them when they visit on vacation? We do not really know.