I offer you questions, not answers. Privacy is a complicated issue, with many problems dwelling at the collision of our various human values.
We feel differently about our information being in the hands of others depending on who they are. Information in the hands of stalkers is creepy and possibly dangerous. Information in the hands of friends is useful and lets us see connections we might have missed. Information in the hands of oppressive governments gets good people killed or tortured. Information in the hands of decent governments can convict criminals. And information in the hands of large corporations can bring great efficiencies. In the right hands or the wrong hands, data does things.
What most of us are missing is just how much data has built up and in whose hands it lies.
With every web page you visit, every link you click, a cryptic HTTP query log is made by the server on the other end, storing the following facts about your visit.
IP Address: This unique number for your current internet connection can be traced to you.
Timestamp: How much time do you spend reading which pages? And why, exactly, were you browsing Facebook profiles until 4:30 a.m.?
What software you’re using: The software equivalent of “Officer, his car was a light green 1989 Chevy Camaro.”
Referring page: A Web site can tell which web page you came from. In the case of searching, it can see your search terms.
Individually, these queries aren’t too bad, but that is not how they are taken. They are taken en masse and can be linked together by their common features or by cookies, and linked to pages where you logged in or identified yourself in some way.
Each ad on a page also gives the ad company one of those queries, with your current page as the reference, letting them learn your click trail. Search engines log all your searches and have already handed over data to various governments around the world.
There are a few ways of ensuring some anonymity. For example, you can download the program Tor from eff.org, get the Torbutton plugin for Firefox from addons.mozilla.org and cryptographically blend into the crowd of Tor users.
“Chilling effects” are when we are not forced to self-censor but face significant incentives to do so. Imagine for a moment that all your web browsing and personal data were accessible to your insurance companies and potential employers. Some employers already use Facebook profiles to disqualify some applicants.
Imagine that everything you choose to read or watch will affect the impression some people or algorithms will have of you. Do a term paper on alcohol addiction or look up a serious illness for a friend, and watch your insurance premiums change a bit. Exploring controversial and unpopular things could affect your image.
Now what if your online data were visible to all your friends, the way some of it is now with the Facebook mini-feed? There would be remarkable new benefits and efficiencies and serendipity would get an algorithmic boost, but we would also feel pressures to self-censor or conform.
Combine web data with other data such as detailed purchase histories, phone logs, the position of your cell phone over time, and so on, and you’ll find there is a lot of information floating around with no clear social agreements on privacy. What privacy balance do we need? What balance do we actually have?
