“…relinquishing control of information to another party renders the individual without any reasonable expectation of privacy.” (Martin, 2016)
Intermission – I will be continuing my articles about BYOD, this is a side trip. Here are links to my BYOD series if you missed them:
Back to that slippery fish…
It is comforting that both Google and Facebook are putting out so many announcements confirming their concern about our privacy, explaining their use of our information and changes in their systems to enhance our privacy and “experience”. Watch for the term “your experience” – high tech firms like to soothe you with it when making changes – it does not matter if it is good or bad for you, it will be an experience!
However, with some research it takes little time to determine that this is theatre. You should not forget these are companies with shareholders who enjoy the profits gained from these advertising giants. The hot fire of internet indignation can force them to make public changes that grab a headline but may or may not enhance our personal privacy. However, these actions are unlikely to be so drastic that they harm profits.
Google promises to drop personalised ad tracking – BBC News
At first the latest “privacy” move by Google Chrome (above link) to stop using third party advertising tracking cookies some time next year looks to be a good thing for us. But on consideration they will be lumping us together into target groups and then surrendering that information to any website that requests it – something cookies did not do. You will be assigned to these groups by Chrome inspecting your browsing history – something cookies did not do. Small groups will make this privacy enhancing procedure more profitable for Google but (with some investigation) would reveal the actual identity of the group members.
Privacy is about your and your organisation’s choices – are you prepared to give up some privacy for added functionality from these advertising and tracking companies? Can they tempt you to give away more than you realise with the offer of some morsel?
Privacy is not something that high tech companies can give you. Your privacy, your organisation’s privacy, the privacy of your employees, clients and customers is something you have to take care of yourself.
Clive Catton MSc (Cyber Security) – by-line and other articles
Reference
Martin, K. (2016). Understanding privacy online: Development of a social contract approach to privacy. Journal of business ethics, 137(3), 551-569.
