Staying away from social media such as Facebook and Twitter and
deliberately limiting the amount of personal information you disclose
online may not be enough to protect yourself from having your private
data exposed.
Last week, the mobile phone messaging client WhatsApp
came under fire from Canadian and Dutch privacy czars for forcing those
who download the app to upload their entire address book.
In a statement, the office of the Canadian privacy commissioner said
it had "reasonable grounds" to believe the California-based developer
was "collecting, using, disclosing and retaining personal information"
of those who had never used the app, but may have given their phone
numbers to a friend or contact who does use the app.
Although yesterday was Safer Internet Day, which promotes the
responsible use of the web and mobile phones, given that we rely on
technology to navigate almost every facet of our lives, how much privacy
can we now realistically expect?
Very little, experts say.
With social networking sites and communication technology making it
so easy for organizations to gather and aggregate information, it is
increasingly difficult to stay in control of your personal data, says
Andrew Clement, a professor of information studies at the University of
Toronto.
"It's extremely hard to do that, even if you are diligent as an
individual, if you want to take advantage of the features of smartphone
apps and social networking sites... And then also there's a tremendous
financial incentive for organizations to do this. [Data is] lucrative
for them," he said.
"And they've got an incentive to get it and it's done so
unobtrusively, so you can't really tell what data is being accessed by
whom and what they're doing with it."
Privacy laws hard to enforce
Although
there are laws and watchdogs such as Canada's privacy commissioner in
place to protect Canadian citizens, the rules are not always enforced,
Clement added.
"The privacy commissioner really doesn't have any teeth, and they
can't fine these organizations," said Clement. "They have rather limited
ability to take any sanctions, and this is a weakness in the law."
Scott Hutchinson, manager of external communications for the Office
of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, said the Privacy Act, which
applies to federal departments and agencies, "has not been substantially
amended in more than 30 years and, as a result, citizens have little
mechanism for redress when things go wrong." He says the federal privacy
law for the private sector "is also well overdue for an update."
Ann Curry, a professor of information sciences at the University of
Alberta, says communication technology is evolving fast, and the laws
and mechanisms available to keep it in check are lagging behind.
"The new technologies are outpacing what we do and governments are
notoriously slow at putting public policy in place. And commerce is just
leaping ahead," she said.
The controversy over WhatsApp is just the most recent incident in a string of publicized privacy threats.
On Jan. 24, a group of journalists, privacy advocates and internet
activists called for software giant Microsoft to regularly release a
report outlining information requests it receives related to its
internet telephone service, Skype.
The group wrote an open letter asking Microsoft for greater
transparency, including disclosing which governments have requested
information, what type of data was requested and the details of all user
data Microsoft and Skype currently stores. Google and microblogging
site Twitter already release their own regular transparency reports.
A leading privacy expert last week also sounded the alarm over cloud
computing, warning Europeans that U.S. laws allow American authorities
to spy on documents and data uploaded to these virtual servers, the BBC
reported.
Offline risks
Going to your local shopping mall may also leave you vulnerable.
Clement, who is also a co-founder of the Identity, Privacy and Security Institute, conducted a study of video surveillance cameras
in stores and businesses in the Toronto area, and found most did not
follow the rules. Merchants are required to have a sign alerting
customers to the camera's use and purpose. It should also display a
contact number so people can inquire about how they can obtain a copy of
footage that contains their image, Clement said.
To illustrate the lack of compliance with these new federal laws,
Clement has offered a $100 reward to anyone who can find a camera that
meets the requirements. No one has successfully claimed his money yet,
he said.
"The longer this goes on, the more this points to the fact that there
is basically no minimally compliant [camera] with the law here."
He added that as video surveillance technology is increasingly
digitized, computers can now be used to analyze these images, and
identify the people in them using face-recognition software. Businesses
may soon be able to alert staff when regular customers come in or market
certain products based on their shopping patterns, Clement added.
"This, again, shifts the power away from individuals to organizations
… There is a whole set of concerns that aren't visible on the face of
it. And I think the risk will grow over time, but more and more people
get used to it," he said.
Some willing to trade personal info for free services
Sidneyeve
Matrix, a media professor at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., said
Canadians can expect that privacy will be "commodified and compromised
at every opportunity."
But she says she is willing to give up a bit of it in exchange for services, such as email.
"Our data is so valuable. There's two sides. I may trade some of my
data in order to use something like Facebook or trade to get better
Google search engine results. I may opt into Foursquare to get a free
coupon. These are choices that I'm making, and I know the price I'm
paying."
She's not alone in her view.
A 2010 study commissioned by the European Union found that 74 per
cent of Europeans said disclosing personal information was a part of
modern life.
About one-third said that disclosing personal information was not an
issue, and 29 per cent said they did not mind giving up personal data in
return for free online services, such as email.
But there was a clear divide among the generations. Roughly 43 per
cent of Europeans surveyed between the age of 15 and 24 who were born
and raised with digital technology said that disclosing personal
information was not a big deal, and 48 per cent of this age group said
they did not mind disclosing their info in return for free services
online.
Still, about 70 per cent of Europeans surveyed said they were
concerned that their personal information was being held by companies
and may be used for a purpose other than that for which it was
collected.
Only 7% of Canadians read privacy policies
About
6 in 10 Canadians said they felt they had less protection of their
personal information in their daily lives than they did a decade ago,
according to a 2011 study conducted by the federal Office of the Privacy
Commissioner.
About 55 per cent of Canadians said they had privacy concerns related
to social networking sites. But those who actually use these sites
seemed less worried – 45 per cent of them were concerned, compared to 66
per cent of non-users.
Despite their worries, just seven per cent said they read the privacy policies of the websites they visit.
"Most of us don't read the terms of service," said Leslie Shade,
associate professor of information studies at the University of Toronto.
"The terms tend to be written in very convoluted, legalistic fashion.
They're very long, and they're also incomprehensible. So, there's very
few social media platforms that have good terms of service."
One example is the recent uproar over Instagram's proposed changes to its terms,
which had users worrying their photos would be used in advertising. The
photo-sharing app said it didn't intend to sell customer's images in
that way, and changed the wording to "eliminate the confusion."
"Are we adequately informed of the consequences? The short- and
long-term consequences?… I don't believe we are," said Clement. "We are
not in a position to make informed judgements. We just close our eyes
and click 'Accept.'"
Evolving views
Clement likened the
issue of data privacy to societal attitudes on environmental degradation
and waste a few decades ago, when people knew very little about how the
garbage and greenhouse gases would affect the environment. It wasn't
until after it became apparent that our actions were polluting the
environment that people took action.
"I think we're in a similar situation. We're now treating the
information ecosystem as a kind of a carefree waste zone or open ground
where we can just leave our information around, and we don't have to
worry about it," said Clement. "It doesn't come back and bite us
immediately."
But with information being collected from hundreds of millions of app
or social media users, Clement said, "you are potentially creating a
dangerous ecosystem.
"That information is now out of our control, individually and
collectively," he said. "And there are quite a number of ways that can
be abused."
In addition to being as careful as possible when signing on to these
services, Curry said, people need to push harder for governments to put
strong measures in place to protect users.
"I think that laws, legislation, policy only really come about when
the citizens push. And I don't think that for governments right now,
particularly the Canadian government, this is high on their agenda … I
still think we have unrealistic expectations of a security bubble around
our data."
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