Privacy in the age of sharing

First, we saw the Internet as a means to access information, but sharing was its key characteristic from its outset. Its precursor, ARPANET, started as a backbone to connect research and military organizations facilitating their information exchange. Commercialization opened the network to companies, individuals, and things like cars, motion sensors in fitness bands, and tiles to tag your valuables. In the early days, creating and sharing content required expertize. But the second wave of the Internet revolution brought content creation and sharing to the masses. Today, anyone who can use a smartphone can post anything to social media sites. In fact, kids growing up with new technologies share text and pictures easier than their grandparents. Easy sharing has a price though. It makes us vulnerable to the threat of data abuse. Individuals, corporations, and governments may collect and analyze pieces of information we share. They may not hold our best interest in their priority. While means exist to protect ourselves, countermeasures lag new threats so we will never enjoy full protection.

GDPR, the General Data Protection Regulation, is the European Union’s effort to protect the private data and privacy of its citizens. The regulation has a strong edge. It raises our awareness that our private data can be abused. But overall, this regulation is rather harmful. When the law is on our side, we feel protected. No one may use our private data without our consent. But did you read all those emails about the policy changes that the websites you registered sent you to follow the regulation? I bet you gave consent without studying the changes, at least sometimes. GDPR not only infused us with a false sense of security. The regulation also opened a door for companies to get your consent beyond your knowledge. The key to your privacy is information overload created by the regulation intended to protect you.

The problem of digital privacy is a classical security problem. Attackers seek your weakest point while defense should be all-round. Defenders need to distribute resources and attention. An attacker may focus on the weakest point and concentrate resources where you are most vulnerable. In terms of sharing and protecting privacy, you need to be conscious in everything because a single mistake may dispose you. This asymmetry leads to a rising cost of security. But spending and alertness are not enough. You may do your best to protect your private data by controlling what you share and where but information is spreading and distributed. The moment you share something, it starts a new life and you will not know how far it gets. Others may also share information about you beyond their knowledge and with no intention to harm you. For example, you appear in public records prescribed by law. Your friends may share pictures of events you took part together.  Sometimes the information is not even about you but people can relate it to you through friends, hobbies, or your work. These are pieces of information others can use to peek in your life as we use a mirror to look around corners. Understand information as a hologram. You may cut one piece out of the holographic plate, but we can still generate the whole picture from the rest of the plate with only somewhat lower quality. Your private data are similar. You may try to hide, but as you live in interactions with others, you leave traces wherever you go.

Is there then no way to protect our privacy? If someone is into collecting your private data, you can only slow them down but cannot stop them. How can you protect yourself from being exploited by abusing your private data then? The first line of defense is being better protected than your neighbor. Bad guys go for the more vulnerable, the easier pray. If you are better protected, they will go after someone else. But costs are raising in an arms race and maybe you cannot afford better protection. Thus, your best defense may be to be prepared for being exposed. How can you do that? The fundamental of business and private ethics: avoid doing what you would not like hearing in the news. To understand that human culture is evolving also helps. A novelty today will bore tomorrow. Being exposed will be less inconvenient when you look at others in similar situations. Norms will change. We may all behave better for the fear of being exposed and people will understand you more as exposures will become more common. Finally, counterattack may be among your best options in digital privacy. We all have a limited attention span and information processing capabilities. If you share lots of unimportant information about yourself, you may overload the curious people around you. They assume they know you but they miss important details. Combine that with always moving and all sensitive information they may still get will be obsolete by the time they perceive it.

The problem of digital privacy is the problem of human nature. We want to show or at least we want to live free and we want to protect our privacy. We want to make our mistakes without being exposed, but we want to shed light on the secrets of others to learn whether we can trust them. The big trade off of using modern technology is between being exposed and being excluded. You can withdraw yourself from the eyes of others; hiding is not that hard. You just do not take part. But withdrawal is hard on your psyche because you may feel isolated. Connectedness has drawbacks. Participation limits your privacy. But being connected also has advantages, which in most cases outweigh the drawbacks.