Digital Privacy, An Illusion?

By Katie Machum

As the internet has become such an integrated part of our lives, the popularity of social

networking websites has reached an all-time high

with...

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. 230 million active users on Twitter

. Those posting an average of 500 million Tweets everyday

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https://business.twitter.com/whos-twitter

• 57% of all American adults and 73% of all those ages 12-17 use Facebook

• 64% of adult Facebook users visit the site on a daily basis

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(Pew Research)

And …

• Instagram has 200 million monthly active users

• With 60 million Instagram photos posted per day

(https://instagram.com/press)

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With social networking comes the development of our

individual data clouds…

Full of personal information, photos and our internet habits.

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And there is no doubt that as our internet activity continues to

grow, due to an increase in mobile technology so too will

our data clouds.

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Although many of us feel in control of our data clouds…

60% of teen Facebook users keep private profiles, and most report high levels of confidence in their ability to manage

their settings. (Pew Research)

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Its businesses’ and government’s ability to connect the dots,

that allows them to know more than you think.

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Search engines, online shopping websites, GPS trackers all collect puzzle pieces of ‘non-personally

identifiable’ information…

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Parts of our data clouds that we believe are not linked to our

identities, but their combination is individually unique.

“Bits of data that feel anonymous are anything but

when taken together”

– Jennifer Goldbeck Image by Liza via Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/5ubGt4

For example:

• The combination of zip code, birthdate and gender was found to be unique for 87% of Americans (Electronic Frontier Foundation)

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Solution: Making the fine print

Not so fine …

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Most privacy policies are extremely misleading, vague

and hard to find.

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So as consumers (who’s time is of value) we choose to skip, scan, skim or scroll through

them.

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• Of the 92% of people online who use a Google service regularly, only 12% have read their new privacy policy

(Study by YouGov)

• Less then ½ who have read their privacy policy, understood it

(Survey by Siegal + Gale)Image via Flickr: https://flic.kr/p/d3HNG3

The time has come for privacy regulators to act together …

and recognize that is essential for consumers to be fully informed,

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Have transparency of what data has been stored, …

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Have a real choice of service, …

And…

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Have this all in terms that we understand.

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Sources: • https://business.twitter.com/whos-twitter • https://instagram.com/press • https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/09/what-information-personally-

identifiable• http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/future_tense/2014/01/

ibeacon_shopkick_privacy_policies_for_location_tracking_apps_aren_t_clear.single.html

• http://www.bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/home/2012/02/ten-people-havent-read-googles.html

• http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/05/21/teens-social-media-and-privacy/• http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/02/05/coming-and-going-on-facebook/