Burner Phones Are Back On The Rise As A Clapback To Sketchy Privacy Policies


According to a Sky News report, global sales of burner phones have risen by five percent compared to smartphones' two percent hike. Gen Zs and Millenials alike have also resorted to switching to 'old-school' gadgets and if you're wondering why it's because of privacy.

When an app is made based on the psychology of addiction, you can only understand why kids today might not want to involve themselves in this drug. Your digital footprint matters now more than ever. Conversations with Gen Zs revolve around their concerns about data privacy regulations. The access to information that your phone allows is quite scary. There is evidence of multi-national corporations like Snapchat, Facebook, and even Pornhub keeping very specific data about its users and choosing to exploit the information. It was only as of very recent that Apple Contractors could listen to our Siri recordings but now only Apple Employees can. 

Yes, technology has been paramount is being able to add substance and education to our world. What most Gen Zs are afraid of, is data exploitation. It's true, big data companies want to exploit our data and the government wants to keep a track on us. We know that this sounds like a conspiracy article from Reddit but stick with us. Privacy laws are only just being made, those new General Data Protection Regulation forms that keep popping up every time we go to a website?  They're important but notice how complicated the whole procedure is. How do we then take back our right to data without big companies making it complicated and almost impossible to keep track of all the choices that we're making? 

To scroll and make sure we're making the right choices on every single new website we go on is very tasking. We don't put too much thought into how these clicks are being stored and with whom. The new face of the internet is customized to our needs, it knows when you need to go to work or school or what the route back home is. It grows with the information that you feed it and is built to rely heavily on that information. 

On the Netflix Show - The Great Hack, Brittany Kaiser, a former employee of Cambridge Analytica mentioned that data was the most valuable resource on Earth at the moment, so much so that it surpassed oil in value. What's even worse is that these companies don't illegally (to a certain extent) steal your information, we give them access, skip over the small text like they're, terms and conditions. 

It's hard to take back all the data that you've signed away, and that's why there's a rise in the consumption of burner phones. If we slowly drop off the market as a protest against data-breaching capitalist companies, and maybe kick it old-school, we could change the course of the future. 

Even Supreme dropped burner phones in one of their latest collections, and if a big capitalistic company with a fairly trendy and modernized consumer-base is promoting this idea, maybe it's time to listen. 

However, it's hard to say if we're going to jump on the burner-phones bandwagon just yet, but it's just a suggestion you know. The 90s are back so we might as well also bring back the less-threatening technology. Do we really need Black Mirror to be the future theme of our lives? 

Next up, The Queen Of Pop, Madonna, Criticizes Instagram