Driving directions, sleep diaries, and step counts. The apps designed to improve our lives with ultra-convenient life hacks and the ability to socialize with friends you haven’t seen since high school have changed the value placed on our privacy. Considered a basic right, privacy has now become a luxury, and companies are helping themselves to your personal information.
You’ve likely heard the saying if a product is free, you are the product. This implies that all or most digital platforms offer their services in exchange for our personal information which is then converted into a commodity for sale. For example, taking fitness data from one app, combining it with the data from your food delivery app and information shared on social media, companies can create aggregated user profiles to sell or share with third parties. Apps installed onto devices, and the way in which the user interacts with them, can reveal a lot about the user’s interests and habits such as lifestyle, religious, health, or political information. This is highly valuable to advertisers.
Privacy is defined as the right to be left alone, and in an article written by Zizi Papacharissi, Ph.D., Professor at the University of Illinois–Chicago and author of A Private Sphere: Democracy in a Digital Age, Dr. Papacharissi states that privacy attains the characteristics of a luxury commodity when it becomes a good inaccessible to most. Luxury goods not only possess a price point beyond the average person’s reach, but they also imply social status and advantage.
The idea of a luxury item can mean premium quality with some level of exclusivity and ‘specialness’, and this applies to privacy as well. When you choose to not pay for the premium upgrade or monthly subscription on your app, not only are you missing out on additional features or having to sit through periodic advertisements, but your toll for choosing the free option was allowing access to your information.
Under privacy laws, organizations are generally required to obtain ‘meaningful’ consent for the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information and have a duty to inform users when and how data is collected. They must also provide the ability to access, correct, and delete such information. While many government regulatory bodies are now playing catch up for decades of ‘wild west’ data collection, organizations are still responsible for maintaining the security of the information it collects. This means a consistent, cutting-edge security process must be maintained if data is to be utilized.
Certain aspects of privacy may always remain a luxury item, however with better legislation surrounding data collection, sharing, and rights along with more privacy-focussed technology innovations, users may once again be in control of their privacy. Learn more about SDM Realms as an approach to maintaining an enhanced level of security without sacrificing the way you communicate and interact in your business and personal lives.