In a recent poll, 87% of respondents said it’s important to understand a company’s privacy policy but more than half do not read them. How did we get here? What happens next? And what responsibility do companies have to change the equation?
Data Privacy
Technological development has always outpaced privacy concerns, but never more so than in the past decade. Collection and centralization of personally identifiable information (PII), tracking of movements and digital surveillance are all at unprecedented levels. Regulations and laws are only just beginning to catch up to the ability of both governments and private entities to deploy these capabilities.
What exactly is there to worry about? The mass collection and centralization of data by giant multinationals such as Facebook and Google is as good of a place to start as any. Two decades of vacuuming up the personal data of users of various online services has created the most impressive marketing capabilities in history, but these profiles have astounding potential for damage when they are used the wrong way or fall into the wrong hands.
Unauthorized information that is captured in data breaches tends to find its way to massive “combo lists” that are sold and traded on the dark web. Social security numbers are added from this breach, home addresses and phone numbers from that one, personal health information from yet another. Soon, a frighteningly complete profile of millions of individuals is available to anyone willing to pay the asking price.
These are just the established data privacy issues. The emerging ones are even worse. High-quality facial recognition technology is just beginning to roll out across the public places of some countries. Artificial intelligence is not only making mass facial recognition possible, but magnifies the power and reach of any application that involves capturing and sorting information: scanning pictures, analyzing speech, sifting through text and location data. This threatens to not only shatter anonymity and privacy, but allow for highly advanced impersonation and take the concept of “identity theft” to new levels.
Some businesses chafe at the trouble and added expense of new and emerging data privacy regulations, but they are vital to both protecting rights and privacy and instilling confidence in end users. Customers want to be able to submit their payment information without worry about data breaches and identity theft, use services without wondering what is being done with their personal information and use devices without fear of surveillance or having location data tracked. The need for meaningful safeguards only grows greater as technological capabilities increase.
One solution for addressing data privacy issues that’s getting a lot of attention, is the personal data marketplace powered by blockchain technology. But is this data marketplace really the right direction for data privacy?
Technology should provide us with the tools we need to feel in control of our personal data, not the opposite. Is there any technology available that can actually stop the companies from making money out of our data?
Bans on privacy coins by Japan and now possibly France and Texas might make it harder for criminals to conduct certain types of illegal activities but crypto advocates say these bans could actually harm efforts to make privacy a universal human right.
In a growing number of cases – including some involving Google Nest microphones for the home and airplane cameras found on back of passenger seats – surveillance devices are deployed haphazardly without thinking about the way they might intrude into people’s lives and privacy.
Enhanced 911 location data would make it possible for emergency first responders to more accurately find and locate people making 911 calls. What are the privacy implications since the biggest U.S. telcos have been secretly selling location data of their customers to a shadowy network of data brokers and data aggregators?
Democracy is at risk from companies like Facebook that behave like digital gangsters. And, in fact, there are many similarities between Facebook’s behavior and recent violations and the way that “traditional gangsters” act.
A new Thailand cybersecurity law went into effect last week, and is controversial more for what it doesn't specify than what it does. As it is worded, it appears to give the Thai government very broad powers to monitor internet use, censor content and even seize property without court orders.
California is putting a proposal on the table to force big tech to create a digital dividend fund to share revenue from any personal data monetization. Will this address increased demand for income inequality and government involvement in wealth redistribution?
Washington State is now considering a comprehensive data privacy act that would protect the personal information of its citizens, making Washington only the second state in America to adopt a comprehensive data privacy law.