Data, Privacy and Power
If we can all agree on who owns which data, maybe we can all be happy — government, corporations, and private citizens.
When two of the biggest behemoths of Big Data — Google and Meta/Facebook — joined forces to help with the effort of contact-tracing people who may have, or may have been exposed to, COVID-19 (SARS-Cov-19), many people were on edge about the potential invasion of their private lives. While the intent to help in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic is definitely good, this action can be seen as yet another attack on personal freedom.
I’ve worked with data professionally for over 20 years in a number of different forms: pharma, fintech, insurance, online and mobile gaming, and TV viewing measurement. It’s treated differently everywhere, subject to a slew of federal and international laws. In the main, however, companies generally follow the rule that they can do whatever they want with the data so long that it doesn’t directly conflict with any of those laws. There usually isn’t any moral restriction if governments don’t first say “that can’t be done”.
The almighty dollar rules.
There are really two primary types of restrictions: those preventing collection of certain data from children (usually meaning those under 13 years…
