Has privacy become a thing of the past?
With video cameras monitoring our every move and face recognition software becoming ubiquitous, we have now become completely transparent in our identity and presence in the public setting
The traditional measure of whether our privacy should be protected under the constitution
“Having a reasonable expectation of privacy”
Has become a thing of the past. We need a new standard… mandating privacy within a certain context and create statutory requirements to achieve this goal.
In the past the government has tried to protect privacy especially with regard to healthcare information (HIPAA) by having specific requirements for de identifying data which is published
Unfortunately these techniques have become ineffective. Large data bases of information can re-identify even anonymized data. JAMA recently reported an AI algorithm able to reidentify anonymized data.
The new paradigm shift that we must all acknowledge is that essentially nothing we do short of isolating ourselves completely from the Internet, credit cards and all other forms of social media will protect our data. Your cell phone with myriad apps tracks your location, surfing purchases banking and email. Natural language processing algorithms can unravel the meaning of your emails
Recent comments that giving out your phone number reveals a plethora of data regarding who you are and what you do belies the fact that your name and address provide virtually the same amount of information
YOU CANNOT HIDE
No longer are fossil fuels our greatest resource in terms of financial value. It is our data. Especially when used to market us products which we are known to need or find useful. The most immoral use of personal privacy data is identifying certain predilections and weaknesses such as vulnerability to gambling addiction. Using this information social gaming companies take advantage and target advertising for games which can lead to financial ruin for individuals
The future may hold the use of similar type of data to target those susceptible to addiction to nicotine, alcohol or other substances which are legal
Europe has taken a more proactive approach to protecting privacy but the technology seems to thwart most efforts
We need a new redoubling of efforts to ensure privacy or at least recognize that everything we do is essentially discoverable and therefore act appropriately within that context
Copyright nicolas argy 2019