Can We Shape Our Own Privacy Destiny?
Today’s clever consumers are not okay with big tech companies harvesting our data on a massive scale. We’re not okay with data that we don’t even know is being collected, being used to forecast our behaviour and infer our interests. We don’t believe in free services anymore, and are more willing to pay for software and apps. We hate the restrictions on our freedoms of accessing content. Today’s clever consumers want to choose for themselves.
What does the future of our privacy and data look like? Our digital environment is changing rapidly. With daily reports of data breaches and leaks in the papers prioritising the issue, individuals and businesses feel the urgency to improve on what it will look like in five to ten years’ time.
Governments raise the bar…
Europe raised the bar for privacy laws when enacted the General Data Protection Regulation in 2016, and enforced it in 2018. Following this, Brazil is in the midst of rolling out its own regulation, Lei Geral de Proteçao de Dados (LGPD). Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) will come into effect in 2020.
In an ideal world, when privacy policy issues have been perfected, laws would require all organisations and businesses to accept responsibility for the impact of their data processing in a way that creates consistent and all-encompassing protection for individuals and society as a whole.
Efforts are there. Apple has introduced new privacy features with its iOS 13, and Facebook is investigating privacy levels of tens of thousands of its third-party apps, but we still have a long way to go to reach a Privacy-First society.
…but each individual has to work towards better control over our own data.
On owned software and apps, it’s easier to control privacy levels for the users, but the internet is large and regulation would prove to be tricky. Although we want autonomy, choice, and freedom over our data, we are stubborn to change habits and silent about voicing out data breaches as long as the service is free.
This is tough for companies who need to make profit and when consumers don’t want to pay for services, they turn to advertising. This might be where our personal privacy went off track.
Taking back our privacy and data comes with more awareness, education, and choices.
We can hope the companies we do business with, or the politicians who represent us, have our best interests at heart, but the real picture is always complex. Situations are never black or white, and these leaders deal with competing interests which leave the consumers and citizens out in the cold.
Thanks to events which have shocked the world, we’re all waking up to the realisation that there’s more that individuals can do to take privacy back into our own hands. We need to recognise that a higher level of online privacy is achievable and we have control over it. There’s a lot that we can do for now, like being vocal about demanding for control over our data, and understanding what data is being kept by which organisations and the permissions we have to control it.
Privacy is not about building walls which are impossible to pass through. It’s about putting control into the hands of the individual, so that they can decide how, with which organisations, and when they share their data with. The ideal level of privacy is when consumers has absolute transparency on who has access to their data, at the get go or when updates are needed.
Every level of society needs to fulfil their responsibilities towards the ideal privacy environment we have in mind for our future as our lives become fully online. It will require the combined efforts of lawmakers imposing strict rules, companies being proactive with business models and policies, and individuals demanding more control to see real change.
The future is not a given: our actions and decisions will take us where we want to go. Don’t accept that today’s state of the world is all that it can be. Have the passion to work for the world you want to see tomorrow. People with passion can change the world for the better and push forward the human race. We are the masters of our own destiny.
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