This is part 2 in a series of post about what’s going to be on the agenda for 2009. Today, I’m talking about the lack of privacy from corporations and governments and how it’s going to affect web site owners next year.
Increasingly, we are being watched. EU Data Retention Legislation requires network operators in member countries to retain logs of traffic and calls between 6 to 24 months. New signals intelligence legislation [Signalspaningslagen] dictates that all IP-traffic between Sweden and foreign countries is copied to the National Defense Radio Establishment [Försvarets Radioanstalt], so that they can inspect it for threats to national security and a load of other, very vague reasons. IPRED gives owners of intellectual property the ability to request data from network operators via the courts about peoples traffic patterns for use in civil suits. And of course, there’s the ever omnipresent Echelon.
Big Content and Big Social are hard at work tracking us with cookies to weed out patterns in behavior. Our surf and search behavior is being carefully monitored and aggregated. They voluntarily retain their data with personally identifiable details for up to 18 months. Google and other search engines censor your results depending on which country you are in. You employer may well use filters to stop you from accessing content not deemed suitable for your working environment and the Internet Watchdog Foundation blocked many UK users from Wikipedia – over a 30 year old album cover. And credit card companies have been tracking our purchasing behavior in detail for decades already.
Next year, people are going to start to notice and value their privacy more. I’m not talking about the kind of exposure that comes from being on social sites and having public profiles, but the real stuff – traditionally personal activities such as phone conversations, searching and surfing, payments and so forth. To meet this, web sites and service providers must be vigilant about privacy. They need to actively ensure clients that they care about their data and privacy.
In fact, it’s has already started. A recent study shows that the data retention legislation is having adverse effects in Germany, where operators are required to retain traffic data for 6 months, effective as of 2008. 11% of the participants stated that they had in fact abstained from making and sending sensitive phone calls and e-mail. The authorities are not supposed to request traffic data unless it’s in relation to serious crimes, but when a member of the German parliament questioned the government on request frequency, it turns out that 2 996 request were made during May and June alone. That’s a lot.
In the past, the divider was set between the business and the individual, but the emerging pattern is that it’s going to be individuals and “good” corporations against governments and bad corporations. Since last year, Google has reduced the time they retain personally identifiable data from 24 months to nine months. Yesterday, Yahoo announced a new low – 90 days! Go Yahoo, that’s the way forward! Swedish punk operator Bahnhof openly takes a stand, saying they will refuse to aid Big Content in their hunt for file sharing individuals.
2009 is the year of justified paranoia. It’s our job now, to give a sense of privacy and control back to the user once they realise they’ve lost it. Those that rise to the challenge are going to have a good year!
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All posts in my series of predictions for 2009;
Tags: 2009, Big Content, Big Social, Intellectual Property, Nostradamus, Privacy
