Must-read 10 Articles about Privacy issues
Because Internet is broken
For the past weeks, we have been overwhelmed by 1,500 articles about #CambridgeAnalytica #ZuckerbergAudition, #Facebook and as Privacy Defender we have decided to pick the Top 10 stories that can help you understand what happened and above all what are the consequences of such Big Bang.
Introduction
At the very beginning of the scandal, Benjamin André, CEO of Cozy Cloud, left a message to Mark Zuckerberg. Watch here
You started a business, you are an entrepreneur. Your project has somehow exceeded even your own exceptations but also your fears. Earlier this year, you called for a more decentralized internet. Today, Cambridge Analytica has come to confirm, if necessary, that there is indeed a need for the emergence of alternatives.
Rank 1: From Facebook users
Rank 2: From architects who built the Web
Tim Berners-Lee wrote a outstanding tweet by sharing that we were living a serious moment for the web’s future. But we can fix it as we collaborate with Web users.
General rules for us all: Any data about me, wherever it is, is mine and mine alone to control. If you are given the right to use data for one purpose, use it for that purpose alone.
Richard Stallman, president of the Free Software Foundation, proposes a law to stop systems from collecting personal data.
Journalists have been asking me whether the revulsion against the abuse of Facebook data could be a turning point for the campaign to recover privacy. That could happen, if the public makes its campaign broader and deeper. Broader, meaning extending to all surveillance systems, not just Facebook. Deeper, meaning to advance from regulating the use of data to regulating the accumulation of data. Because surveillance is so pervasive, restoring privacy is necessarily a big change, and requires powerful measures.
The EU’s GDPR regulations are well-meaning, but do not go very far. It will not deliver much privacy, because its rules are too lax. They permit collecting any data if it is somehow useful to the system, and it is easy to come up with a way to make any particular data useful for something.System designers have become expert at manufacturing consent
Rank 3: From emerging alternatives
Cambridge Analytica and Mark Zuckerberg’s audition confirmed that today (and more than ever), the digital ecosystem is shaped by the interest of companies to profile you to sell influence. Beyond the promise of allowing anyone to reclaim their data, building an alternative, decentralized digital ecosystem is still possible as explained Benjamin André. But in concrete terms, what would a truly ethical digital offer users?
There is a moral connotation in the word “ethics”, a kind of commun interest as the issue is to align the user’s interest with the service’s one.
The world is divided into two categories. Those who give up all privacy in exchange for free services. And those who pay.
Rank 4: From public institutions
Mounir Mahjoubi, Secretary of State for Digital Affairs : “GAFAM should adapt to the rules of democracy”
EU Digital Commissioner Mariya Gabriel told EURACTIV in an interview that to avoid a similar scandal in the future, sluggish negotiations on the major ePrivacy reform need to move forward to make sure tech companies obtain users’ consent before processing their data.
Rank 5: From the IT press
Trust is really important and it’s clear that we have a lot of work to do to regain the trust of people on our service” he said, giving us deja vu about Mark Zuckerberg’s testimonies before congress.
“We know that people won’t be comfortable using Facebook if they don’t feel that their information is protected.”
Special Rank : Who Has More of Your Personal Data Than Facebook?
Google as the biggest influencer in the world…
Conclusion
Your vacation destinations, future cars, playlists, preferred electoral candidate, encounters with others… via their personalized suggestions, the GAFA companies increasingly influence your choices thanks to what they know about us. A democratic society in the digital era must enable individuals to reclaim ownership on data and algorithms.
In his 2018 New Year resolutions, Mark Zuckerberg called for the de-centralization of technology… and the current situation forces him to accelerate this change of paradigm.
That has been Cozy’s mission since it was created: to enable every individual to make the best use of his or her personal data by reclaiming ownership on it.
