Concerns With Digital Privacy

This blog is in response to an article titled Worried About Digital Privacy? You’re Not Alone by Alex Fitzpatrick and was found on Mashable.com.  Alex wrote on the topic of digital privacy and I thought I would add my thoughts on this topic.

In the article Alex outlines that a recent consumer reports poll suggested that 71% of participants felt “very concerned” with companies selling their personal information.  He also highlights that the survey found 65% of respondents who owned smartphones were concerned with the ability of apps access their address books, photo galleries, geolocation and other sensitive data.  The consumer report also covers topics such as targeted online advertising, data storage, and exploitation of online data.

This information is not really a surprise to me and I’m sure many of us share the same opinion.  The fact is that while many of are concerned with our online privacy how can we better protect ourselves?  I think that executing our own due diligence is the first defence, and simply being aware of the threats out in cyber space is the first step.  One way of doing this is actually reading the privacy policies of many of the websites or apps you are providing your information to.  You might be surprised with what you find written in the small print.

Another way to protect your privacy, which is also discussed in the article, is providing laws that protect internet users.  There have been some recent developments in laws that are directed at protected consumers’ online data including President Obama’s push for a “Consumer Bill of Rights” which would help to govern what companies can do with consumer data they collect online.

Laws may seem to be the right choice as far as governing the usage of online consumer data, but the concern I have is with the enforcement of these regulations.  There will be some organizations that will abide by the rules with limited enforcement but with so much data moving between so many users in countries all over the world it will be a daunting task to ensure companies are abiding by these rules.

Digital privacy will no doubt be an on going concern as technology evolves and companies continue to collect and mine consumer data.  The question that is left for us to decide is whether we are OK with this usage of our data, and if not what are we going to do about it?