From Irwin (2021): “Under certain circumstances, any of the following can be considered personal data:”:
Personal data is data that identifies a “natural” (living) person.
Pat Walshe of ‘Privacy Matters’ says: “We use our smartphones and computers like never before to make calls, send personal texts and pictures, message people via services WhatsApp or Snapchat, shop online for food or medicines, to share personal bits of our lives on social media, search for information on mental or physical health, politics, religion or places to visit, to browse websites, leave feedback and indicate our likes and dislikes. Being digital creates a wealth of data about us often personal and sensitive. Data that may let others know us better than we know ourselves” (Privacy Matters).
We may volunteer data when we place an order online or book a health appointment. Data may be captured and observed about us and our devices and our online behaviour (such as the websites we visit, the songs we listen to or movies we watch, the kind of device we use, our locations - whether we realise it or not). Data may be inferred from profiling us and analysing information about us (such as which username listened to a song or watched a movie online, the category of the song or movie, at what point a person paused a song or a movie, together with date and time when they paused and restarted or abandoned listening or watching, the location they were in (at least the country) – data that’s kind of like a digital shadow of activities online (Privacy Matters).
In addition to personal data. There is also sensitive personal data. Under the general data protection regulation (GDPR) which we will learn more about in step 4, sensitive personal data under the GDPR, can include data that reveals your:
Sensitive personal data also includes data about a person’s health (mental or physical for example); data concerning an individual’s sex life or sexual orientation; genetic data; biometric data (used to uniquely identify someone) and data relating to criminal convictions and offences (Privacy Matters).
Brodkin (2021) reported in April 2021 that T-Mobile will:
“… begin a new program that uses some data that we have about you”
“including information we learn from your web and device usage data (like the apps installed on your device)”
“and interactions with our products and services for our own and 3rd party advertising unless you tell us not to".
How do you feel if your mobile phone provider informed you that they would act like T-Mobile? Or if you use T-Mobile, how does their statement make you feel about their collection and use of your data?
