“Data privacy” is one of
those terms that feels stripped of all emotion. It’s like a flat soda. At least
until America’s failures to build even basic data privacy protections carry
flesh-and-blood repercussions.
اضافة اعلان
The reality in the United States is that there are few legal or
other restrictions to prevent companies from compiling the precise locations of
where we roam and selling that information to anyone. This data is in the hands
of companies that we deal with daily, like
Facebook and
Google, and also with
information-for-hire middlemen that we never directly interact with.
This data is often packaged in bulk and is anonymous in theory,
but it can often be traced back to individuals, as the tale of the Catholic
official shows. The existence of this data in such sheer volume on virtually everyone creates
the conditions for misuse that can affect the wicked and virtuous alike.
The Internal Revenue Service has bought commercially available
location data from people’s mobile phones to hunt (apparently ineffectively)
for financial criminals. US defense contractors and military agencies have
obtained location data from apps that people use to pray or hang their shelves.
Stalkers have found targets by obtaining information on people’s locations from
mobile phone companies. When Americans go to rallies or protests, political
campaigns buy information on attendees to target them with messages.
I am exasperated that there are still no federal laws
restricting the collection or use of location data. If I made a tech to-do list
for Congress, such restrictions would be at the top of my agenda. (I’m
encouraged by some of the congressional proposals and pending state legislation
to restrict aspects of personal location data collection or use.)
Most Americans by now understand that our phones are tracking
our movements, even if we don’t necessarily know all the gory details. And I
know how easy it can be to feel angry resignation or just think, “so what?” I
want to resist both of those reactions.
Hopelessness helps no one, although that’s often how I feel,
too. Losing control of our data was not inevitable. It was a choice — or rather
a failure over years by individuals, governments and corporations to think
through the consequences of the digital age. We can now choose a different
path.
And even if you believe that you and your family have nothing to
hide, I suspect that many people would feel unnerved if someone followed their
teenager or spouse everywhere they went. What we have now is maybe worse.
Potentially thousands of times of day, our phones report our locations, and we
can’t really stop them.
The New York Times editorial board wrote in 2019 that if the
US
government had ordered Americans to provide constant information about their
locations, the public and members of Congress would likely revolt. Yet, slowly
over time, we have collectively and tacitly agreed to hand over this data
voluntarily.
We derive benefits from this location-harvesting system,
including from real-time traffic apps and nearby stores that send us coupons.
But we shouldn’t have to accept in return the perpetual and increasingly
invasive surveillance of our movements.
Read more
Technology
.jpg)
.jpg)
