by Lynette Owens<\/p>\n
Nine years ago, I wrote a piece<\/a> to coincide with Data Privacy Day 2011. It listed my top five hopes for how the industry could evolve to better protect the privacy of everyday consumers and their families. Fast forward to 2020, and as we mark the same event on January 28, much has changed for the better. Yet that wish list remains largely unfulfilled.<\/p>\n The bottom line is that we all have a responsibility as parents to ensure our kids are privacy literate \u2014 that they know the potential risks of over-sharing online and how their data is collected. But so do the companies that harvest, use and\/or sell this data on to others, often without our knowledge.<\/p>\n First, the good news. Privacy is now much more widely discussed than it was back in 2011. We live in a digital-first society where most of the population has at least one social media account, and we use online services for everything from shopping and banking to healthcare and entertainment. True, the reason why many consumers are now more privacy-aware is because of a catalog of major incidents that have shattered our faith in the organizations that collect and use our personal data.\u00a0 Over the past two years alone, the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal and the Equifax data breach to name just two, resulted in highly sensitive data ending up with others that we did not entrust it to.<\/p>\n Yet out of this has grown broader public awareness of the privacy risks associated with our increased dependency on the internet and concrete steps which could help protect us and our families online for the decades to come. Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg pledged to build a \u201cprivacy-by-design\u201d culture at the social media giant following a massive $5 billion FTC fine<\/a>, while YouTube agreed not to collect data from children without parental consent after a $170m settlement<\/a>.<\/p>\n Legislators have also sharpened their teeth to protect people\u2019s personal information, with the GDPR in Europe, which applies to all global organizations with EU customers, and the CCPA in California. These legal requirements promise to introduce more accountability and transparency in how personal data is collected and managed, while arming consumers with greater powers over how their info is used. \u00a0Because of other public and legal pressure, companies have also designed privacy policies that are somewhat easier to understand (although they are still quite lengthy) which help individuals provide informed consent for how their data is used.<\/p>\n Despite these positive trends, more data is collected on consumers today than ever before \u2014 especially through wearables and IoT devices. There\u2019s always been a trade-off for consumers between the amount of personal data they\u2019re prepared to give up and the quality of the service they receive in return. For free, ad-driven services and a high degree of personalization, we\u2019re more likely to be OK with a relatively high degree of data sharing. But in the new world of IoT, things become more complicated.<\/p>\n How do we know if a virtual assistant like Alexa or Siri is overstepping the mark on what it collects? A recent backlash<\/a> against such AI-powered tech indicates that the debate is starting to heat up. Vendors are scrambling to respond. Ring recently introduced<\/a> new features to allay privacy and security concerns from users, including its sharing of customer doorbell footage with local police departments.<\/p>\n With this in mind, then, here is my 2020 wish list this Data Privacy Day<\/a>:<\/p>\n As a glass-half-full kind of person, I believe things are moving in the right direction. But as parents we need to remain vigilant and demand more. That means first understanding the challenges ourselves and then teaching our kids about the importance of online safety in the digital age. If we do our jobs right, it\u2019s a message that will hopefully resonate down through future generations.\u00a0 So for now, let\u2019s end the apathy and do the little things we can to protect our family’s privacy today.<\/p>\nPrivacy goes mainstream<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Still a way to go<\/strong><\/h3>\n
My 2020 privacy wish list<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n