How can we exercise ‘The Right to Be Forgotten’ clause when we’re not part of EU?
In a Linkedin article I posted, my friend Andy Wong raised his concern to me. He said that shaping one’s privacy destiny is applicable to people who are only just born, or yet to be born. For those who are currently alive, tech companies just have too much data on us. He also highlighted that more governments need to enforce a “right to be forgotten” clause to internet search engines and social media providers.
I thank Andy for highlighting this.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) introduces a right for individuals to have their personal data erased, which is also known as ‘the right to be forgotten’. Individuals can make a verbal or written request to companies holding their personal data to erase their data. Companies have one month to respond to it.
Currently, this is only enforced in the EU. Google has applied the right to be forgotten rules in Europe since May 2014.
Privacy as Data Property
Today, I was reading about the proposed policies by U.S.’ 2020 Presidential Candidate Andrew Yang, which is to treat data as a property right and found it intriguing to envision our privacy destiny as data property.
We might not live long enough to see it. However, just like environmental concerns, we owe it to our next generation to build a better world in our lifetime for our kids. My kids. I have two of them. They’re still young and I want to help create a better world for them than the world we have today.
I wake up every day to create this privacy destiny for them which is why I found it refreshing to see data policies so clearly outlined by a candidate in his campaign (Note: I am not siding with any political party in the coming US election, I’m merely agreeing with what this candidate is proposing).
Here’s what Andrew Yang is proposing:
- The right to be informed as to what data will be collected, and how it will be used
- The right to opt out of data collection or sharing
- The right to be told if a website has data on you, and what that data is
- The right to be forgotten; to have all data related to you deleted upon request
- The right to be informed if ownership of your data changes hands
- The right to be informed of any data breaches including your information in a timely manner
- The right to download all data in a standardized format to port to another platform
Data collection for search engine businesses.
Specific to search engines businesses, they do not need to own and keep so much unnecessary data of their users, nor to track personal search history to make money or deliver quality search results.
Search engines make money by bidding on keywords and delivering ads based on the keywords that you type in. They do not need to know anything about the user — registered or otherwise.
So why do companies like Google track all these data?
They have turned into an advertising company, and not a search company as they originally were. Advertising companies which track and mine your data, package your data into a box, tie it up in a ribbon sell it to advertisers to follow you around the internet. Intrusive and annoying. No wonder it feels like you’re being watched, listened to, and monitored.
As a company who’s not part of the EU and hence, not part of the land where The Right to be Forgotten clause is not enforced, here’s what companies can do to support a world with better privacy:
· Choose advertising based on interests, instead of hyper-targeting users. There are many ways to do this, just be creative with it.
· Create content around the targeted interest and embed the interest-based advertising through that.
I want to choose privacy and society’s rights every single day for my children to have a better future, even if we may not live to see it. It’s a fight worth fighting.
Follow more of our CEO’s thoughts on his LinkedIn.
Try out Boogle.com, the first decentralized search engine built on blockchain where you can earn as you search, and no single entity owns or acts on your data without your permission.
