Whos Watching Us Why Privacy Matters.

when’s the last time you read the terms

and conditions of a digital service

how about acknowledging an app’s privacy

policy

for most of you scrolling down as fast

as you can to the checkbox at the end of

a forum

is something you do without thinking and

it certainly was for me

until i learned what it actually meant

for my data

we’re treating the terms and conditions

simply as an obligatory checkbox

at the end of a forum we’ve hardly read

as opposed to treating it

like the legally binding contract it

truly is

ladies and gentlemen today i’d like to

talk about data privacy

it’s an internet buzzword that’s been

thrown around with the likes of ai

machine learning and big data but by

definition

data privacy or information privacy is a

branch of security concerned with the

proper

handling of data consent

notice and regulatory obligations

in an entirely digitized 21st century

you’d even be right to equate the value

of data

to liquid gold now debates around

privacy

usually seem simple at first something

is either private

or it’s not but it’s not until we unpack

the fine print

that we realize why it’s so important

before we even delve into my personal

experiences with privacy

we need to first understand the

principle that content on the world wide

web

is hardly unintentional there’s a hidden

goal driving the direction of all the

technology we make

and that goal is the race for our

attention

because every news site ted talk

elections politicians

games even meditation apps have to

compete for one thing

which is our attention and there’s only

so much of it

and the best way to get people’s

attention is to know how someone’s mind

works

in other words discussions about privacy

are more central to our daily lives

than we can possibly imagine six months

ago

i participated in the global summit on

data security

as a student it was fairly intimidating

listening to large corporations and

thought leaders

devoting their lives as well as

resources aimed at producing solutions

to privacy concerns

the summit without a doubt was memorable

i was exposed to

a plethora of think tanks forcing me to

reflect upon countless security breaches

occurring on a day-to-day basis that i

had hardly ever given

a single thought to but what i learned

from the summit goes far beyond

saving passwords and the do’s and don’ts

of social media

something that really resonated with me

to this day

is an abbreviation known as the three ps

of privacy

people purpose and process

the first of the ps is people as a

thought experiment i was tasked with

utilizing common conceptions about

privacy

to convince a group of selected

individuals towards purchasing a set

product you’ll be surprised to see how

easy this was to prove just how few

people bother to read the terms and

conditions

when they purchase an item or engage a

service we succeeded in persuading

99 percent of survey respondents

and customers at the summit to surrender

ridiculous things

like the naming rights of their first

born child and browsing history access

to their mothers

as a matter of fact those who had

provided seemingly innocuous information

such as their zip code or travel

preferences were 10 times more likely

to buy a pre-determined product

let that sink in for a second 99 of

every 100 participants

are willingly surrendering their

personal intellectual property

to profit-driven companies potentially

subjecting themselves

to sneakily targeted advertisements

for what it’s worth corporations could

even advertise

bottled air within a privacy policy

agreement and i’d expect the majority of

you to go along with it

without even noticing next

purpose to identify how exactly

corporations make money off of our data

it’s worth breaking down what a privacy

policy looks like in the first place

we’ve all wondered what those endless

pages of clauses and exceptions

actually mean for you as a user and at

the summit we formulated a general

template

based on over 150 policies accused of

security breaches

almost every one of these statements

starts off generic

citing company values and the usual

privacy is at the forefront of our

business statement

it’s the first thing you see and so

needs to be able to make you trust the

company enough

to skim read the rest of the agreement

unsurprisingly the data we collected

showed that 98

of users effectively check the i agree

box

based off the first three lines of the

agreement

following the value statement comes the

ask a section

strategically concealed and devised

ultimately to list your rights and data

taken

but unfortunately isn’t really intended

for you to read

statements you would most definitely

object to like the sharing of your

credit card data across company branches

and the usage of your location for

predictive adverts are stored here

take a look at the statement from

amazon’s privacy policy

notice anything yet by ticking that

agree box amazon’s users have literally

placed their banking information

in the hands of 150 of amazon’s

subsidiary companies

simply by ordering that set of

headphones online over 350

000 employees have just received access

to your data

with lengthy technical jargon and

promise statements

you’re confused into thinking these are

there to inform users

as opposed to protecting companies

instead

if there’s anything you take away from

the speech it’s to look through the

second half of the privacy agreement

for every digital service you use

chances are there’s a box you’d rather

uncheck that’s getting overlooked

and if you do end up checking that box

i’d make sure you’re happy with a

minimum

of 10 000 complete strangers looking

through that information

finally the last of the ps is process

many of the companies cited updated

regulations and newly processed policies

as a means of solution producing

solutions to privacy concerns

this got me thinking what is this

actually going to change

how many of us are going to scroll

through the new policies and

alter our data settings we sign up to

get the service

but we don’t put much thought into who

might be storing our clicks

it does seem weird at first when our

when the device seems to know where we

live

how old we are what brand of toothpaste

we use or what books we like

then we grow to expect this familiarity

and even to like it

it makes the online world seem

customized for us

and it cuts down on the time we need to

map their at home or order something new

to read

the machine essentially anticipates

what we want this ladies and gentlemen

forms a foundation of predictive

analytics

now some of you here might be wondering

if i’ve got nothing to hide

why should i care and if you are i

wouldn’t be surprised

in fact we dedicated an entire day of

the summit

towards evaluating what’s known as the

nothing to hide

argument essentially in a tight nutshell

the theory states that an individual has

no reason to fear

or oppose surveillance programs unless

they are afraid

it will uncover their own illegal

activities but it’s equally important to

take a step back

and understand the wider implications of

this over the next decade the next three

billion people will come online

mostly from developing countries

personal privacy will be vital

to ensuring their survival both offline

and online

even if we do opt out as corporations

suggest

does this really mean they stop

collecting our data

would they reveal collected data to us

and if we asked to have this data

deleted

would they actually do so in my eyes

arguing that you don’t care about the

right to privacy

because you have nothing to hide is no

different than saying

you don’t care about free speech because

you have nothing to say

and the internet it’s the very epitome

of free speech

as such we need to make privacy

ubiquitous simple

and understood by all only then will we

be able to preserve one of the greatest

innovations of the last century

the internet and allow for our world to

continue to develop

innovate and prosper browsing the

internet under the privacy of our homes

has given us the impression that our

activities are also

private but often we’re more

visible than ever in short

ladies and gentlemen the next time you

download an application

and the terms and conditions pop up be

someone who is responsible with their

data

and will refuse to walk willingly into a

trap a company has so craftily laid out

because data is now an invaluable

economic

resource and if we want to allow for the

internet

to drive the benefits of every aspect of

life it permeates through today

we need to stand up to the challenge of

protecting

our data in turn rebooting

our digital conscience thank you