How can we become less digitally indifferent?

Bart Heesink –

In a world where almost all our communication, healthcare, work, and administration takes place online, privacy is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. Yet I still often hear: “Oh well, what does it matter… my information isn’t that interesting”. It may seem like an innocent statement, but in practice, it undermines our collective digital resilience.

The illusion

We overestimate our anonymity and underestimate the impact of (meta)data. What can a hacker or a company do with your location, browser history, or click behavior? More than you think. Companies like Meta, OpenAI, TikTok, and Google don't need to read your messages to know how you feel, what you buy, believe, or vote. They combine bits of metadata, when you do something, with whom, and from where into a surprisingly complete profile. And that data is valuable. To marketers, insurers, recruiters, and governments.

Facebook paid $19 billion for WhatsApp, not for the content but for the metadata

Bart Heesink

It's Not Just About You

Even if you don't find it important and choose not to handle your data carefully, you still have a responsibility to handle other people's data with care. Most people have access to data that contains information about others (e.g., your contacts or data within workplace applications).

Privacy is a collective good. Think of social media, platforms, team chats, and other applications: if one participant shares or inadequately secures sensitive data, it can affect many others. This makes privacy not just an individual right, but a shared responsibility.

Legislation is necessary, but often too late or too limited

The GDPR is a step forward, but there are still plenty of gray areas. Consider recent concerns about AI and surveillance, or how easily U.S. cloud providers must surrender data to intelligence agencies. Also think of situations where privacy clashes with policy, such as in fraud prevention in healthcare, where insurers gained access to medical records without explicit consent. Often, a cannon is used to shoot a mosquito when it comes to privacy.

Progressive organizations take responsibility

At organizations like AcademicTransfer, 99gram, and Jouw Omgeving, we've seen how important it is not to treat privacy as a “compliance checkbox”, but as a strategic pillar. By applying ‘privacy and security by design’. Through secure passwords, automatic logouts, encryption, no tracking, no external services outside the EU, and minimal data collection (only store what you need), you prevent user data from becoming a risk.

But is anything really safe?

Fortunately, yes. Technology keeps evolving, and you have more influence as a user than you might think.

Concrete measures organizations (and users) can take:

  • Use passphrases instead of short passwords, and store them in secure password managers.
  • Use two-factor authentication, but opt for authentication apps or hardware tokens instead of SMS codes.
  • Never send sensitive information via regular email unless it is end-to-end encrypted. Think of solutions like ProtonMail or tools for temporary, encrypted messages.
  • Use a VPN so you always have a secure connection.
  • Limit data storage and linkage to a minimum. The less you know about users, the smaller the risk.

At Leukeleu, we apply the principle of data minimization. We don't want to know everything about end users, only what's truly necessary. This makes our applications and platforms safer and more user-friendly.

We've also developed Django HIdP to implement the above measures in a user-friendly way within our applications.

Awareness

Safe behavior starts with awareness, not with fear but with ownership. Everyone has something to hide. And that's not suspicious or exaggerated; it's human. What you send to friends, which sites you visit, your bank statements, it's private, and it should stay that way. What we need is a collective behavioral change. Just like with sustainability: not just rules or technology will solve it, but the combination with awareness and behavior. That's why this article is also an invitation: how can we work together for a safer digital landscape?

Want to know or talk more about this?

Are you working on a platform with sensitive data? Looking for ways to structurally ensure security? Or do you want to make your team aware of the risks and solutions? We're happy to have a conversation.

Talk to us!

Sources

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