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