According to Jan Holvast (2009) “Discussion on privacy
issues is as old as mankind. Starting with the protection of one’s body and
home, it soon evolved in the direction of controlling one’s
personal information.”
In 1890, Warren & Brandeis wrote “That the individual shall have full protection in person and in property is a principle as old as the common law”, and “in very early times, the law gave a remedy only for physical interference for life and property”. They added that “now [in 1890] the right to life has come to mean … the right to be let alone”, and “the term ‘property’ has grown to comprise every form of possession – intangible, as well as tangible”.
In 2011 Nissenbaum informed that “The year 2010 was a big one for online privacy. Reports of privacy gaffes, such as those associated with Google Buzz and Facebook’s fickle privacy policies, graced front pages of prominent news media. In its series “On What They Know,” The Wall Street Journal aimed a spotlight at the rampant tracking of individuals for behavioral advertising and other reasons.”
In terms of the ethics of privacy, Marijn Sax (2018) “focuses on questions such as ‘What is the value of privacy?’ and ‘What privacy norms should be respected by individuals (including ourselves), society, and the state?’
On 10 April 2022, British comedian John Oliver in his HBO show ‘Last Week Tonight’ called “attention on the harm by ‘data brokers’ who capture and put together our online ‘digital data crumbs’ to deanonymize us and sell our data to third-parties” (in the Guardian, 11 April 2022). Oliver reported that data brokers are “part of a multi-billion dollar industry” that “collect your personal information and then resell or share it with others” with the “main tools are cookies, which enable websites to remember you and have evolved to include third-party cookies, which track where else you are going on the Internet”. (Guardian). We will be returning to cookies in Step 3.
Google Chrome
Some of you may use Google’s Chrome browser Incognito mode to maintain your privacy. However, it appears that Google “secretly scoops up troves of internet data even if users browse in “Incognito” mode to keep their search activity private.” (Nayak and Rosenblatt, 2021). A Bloomberg 2021 news item reports that “Consumers have filed a case as a “class action” alleging that “even when they turn off data collection in Chrome, other Google tools used by websites end up amassing their personal information” (Nayak and Rosenblatt, 2021). You can learn more about this case on Bloomberg’s new site here: https://bloom.bg/3gFt4vV
Facebook 533million user data breach
You may have heard the recent news that no matter how much we might try to keep our information somewhat private, if we use social media we are at the platform owner’s disposal, and competence to secure our privacy. The personal details of more than 530 million Facebook users were found available on a website for hackers in April 2021 (Holroyd, 2021). Personal information of the 533million include Facebook users in these countries:
- More than 35 million in Italy
- Over 32 million in the US
- Almost 20 million accounts in France
- 11 million users in the UK, and
- 6 million users in India.
Lomas (2021) reports that the data dump, of information that Facebook users have shared on this platform, includes:
- Facebook IDs
- Full names
- Phone numbers
- Locations
- Birthdates
- Bios, and
- Some email addresses
You can read more on TechCrunch.
If you are a Facebook user and want to find out if your information is included in this Facebook data breach you can check either by your email, or using your Facebook ID, or phone number at these websites:
You can also follow the tweets of The Real Facebook Oversight Board “holding Facebook to account” on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/FBoversight
You may have heard the name Frances Haugen. She is a data scientist and former employee of Facebook. Haugen gave testimony to the US Senate on 5 October 2021, to the UK parliament on 25 October 2021, and to the European parliament on 8 November 2021. Haugen exposed Facebook’s profit strategy over user welfare. Read more about Frances Haugen’s advocacy for “accountability and transparency in social media” on her website: https://www.franceshaugen.com/).
The Irish Data Protection Commission “imposed a fine of 17million Euros on Meta Platforms Ireland Limited over a series of data breaches between 7 June 2018-4 December 2018” (from here: https://bit.ly/3MmUIKN).
Christopher Wylie, former data scientist at Cambridge Analytica and author of the 2019 book ‘MindF*ck: Inside Cambridge Analytica’s Plot to Break the World’ states: “Facebook has too much unchecked power” (page 225).
In 2021, the US District Court Southern District of New York placed a civil action: Google Digital Advertising Antitrust. Paragraph 175 on page 64 of the US court document states:
“Google presents a public image of caring about privacy, but behind the scenes Google coordinates closely with the Big Tech companies to lobby the government to delay or destroy measures that would actually protect users’ privacy” (from Civil Action No.: 1:21-md-03010-PKC document accessible from courtlistener.com ).
Carissa Veliz, author of the 2020 book ‘Privacy is Power’ warns:
¡ “The Internet is primarily funded by the collection, analysis and trade of data … the data economy” (page 1)
¡ “Much of that data is personal data – data about you” (page 1)
¡ “ … smart phone …. Recording your journey and how long you stayed….” (page 2)
¡ “ The data economy, and the ubiquitous surveillance on which it feeds, took us by surprise” (page 2)
