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Posts Tagged ‘disclosure’

Your Digital Dossier

April 10th, 2009
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We know so little about what’s in our “permanent records” and yet those records can have such a significant impact on what we do–and are allowed by others to do.

The first we might learn about this is in elementary school, when someone threatens us with a mark in our “permanent record.” Most people don’t give their records much thought, believing that certain entries expire. While this may be true (tickets disappear from our driving record after 7 years, and a bankruptcy from our financial records after 10 years. However, we don’t know and often can’t confirm the removal of anything from today’s digital records, since the urge to save data is so strong by people creating the databases, and the cost to save data is so small.

Coaching moment: It’s an informative and practical exercise to take a period of time and create your own digital dossier that says everything about you. Take notes on where you went, what you spent, how long you took and what considerations aided you in making a decision, who you talked with, what you said. Make your notes as detailed as possible, since in some situations your conversations or travels are being monitored by videos.

At the end of your recording period, look back to see what you recorded. Now here comes the fun part: what could someone who didn’t know you misconstrue or misunderstand? What information could be taken out of context and be used in a harmful way?

Remember: it’s not that you don’t have anything to hide. It’s that the power to use your data isn’t in your hands.

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Data Ownership

February 17th, 2009
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Several people have asked about Facebook’s recent changes to their Terms of Service. The controversy was sparked by a post in The Consumerist entitled We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever! That was followed by a comparison by Amanda French, and an analysis by Jacobson Attorneys. Of course, in the fray Facebook’s Zuckerberg also weighed in.

What people were asking about is why they should care. They have ALL of their friends on the service and it has become The Only Way to keep up with their network. So what if Facebook uses a picture; that helps the photographer or artist, doesn’t it? (It’s doubtful that Facebook would give the artists credit for their work because that might distract from the mission of its use.)

A moment from history might be appropriate. Back in 1954, George Orwell wrote a book called 1984. Wikipedia says about this book that “the novel has become famous for its portrayal of pervasive government surveillance and control, and government’s increasing encroachment on the rights of the individual.”

Of note: these days it’s more about the influential power of the 10,000 little brothers to do the same work, like death by a thousand paper cuts. The issue remains as one of self-determination.

For your entertainment, here is the BBC version of Orwell’s book.

Coaching moment: Remember when you were a young teen and wanted to do a lot of exciting things, but your parents wouldn’t let you? They claimed that you didn’t yet have wisdom to act appropriately and might do harm to yourself or others. You probably viewed that as a matter of self determination: you know what’s best for yourself. As you get older, you’re often treated in a similar (and occasionally condescending) way by the marketing and advertising industry: they know what’s best for us. Advertisers make or contract with online services (like Facebook) in order to attract you to their advertisements. The advertisers want nothing more than to sell you stuff–because isn’t that the bottom line of their business, to sell more stuff?

What are your options? Would you rather be part of a system in which you can declare your interests? Let’s say you love looking at new car ads, but don’t want to see truck commercials. Or let’s say you want to know what natural soaps or facial products are available these days. Wouldn’t it be nicer to see the ads for goods and services that are of interest? That would also be a benefit to the advertisers who want you to see things you’re interested in buying.

What do you think? I welcome your comments.

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They will track you down like the lowly… (2003)

January 24th, 2003
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A lot of coverage on the court’s order that Verizon to hand over a subscriber’s name–someone who had made some music files available over a file sharing network. I like Wired’s coverage:

“The court should not open the door for anyone who makes a mere allegation of copyright infringement to gain complete access to private subscriber information without due process of law,” said Mike Lamb, AT&T’s chief privacy officer, in a statement.

“The statute at issue requires ISPs to disclose the identity of subscribers expeditiously in response to a subpoena issued by a court clerk,” he added. “Such extraordinary disclosure obligations should be construed narrowly to afford subscribers the opportunity to challenge the requested disclosure.” …

“This is not a debate about privacy, it’s about piracy and the 2.6 billion illegal downloads each month,” the spokesman said. “To suggest that an Internet user’s privacy is more at risk because of this decision is a red herring. Verizon never argued it in the case and there is no First Amendment protection for committing a federal crime.”

Framing the debate as privacy vs. piracy helps illustrate that it’s all about who’s in control.

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