One of the underlying concerns as mobile connectivity increases is the extent to which privacy of personal data will remain desirable or even possible.
I decided to dig out my crystal ball and predict three possible futures for privacy in a mobile world:
Andrew,
I appreciated the creative nature of your presentation. It was a refreshing read and an imaginative project. I think I would have appreciated you breaking down some more of the specific privacy concerns you may have personally or if you could have provided some insights from your personal background it may have made your rationale a bit more compelling. I am wondering what the end goal is for your project – whether you are hoping to create a deeper understanding for the user regarding data collection or whether there is a mobile app for the user to integrate to assist with data protection. Thanks for your innovative presentation style!
Thanks Katie. I agree that there could perhaps have been a summary section as well as a bio to set the scene, but I tried to keep to the format and limits suggested in the instructions:
“FORMAT: This is not an academic paper. Employ a presentation format consistent with effective viewing on mobile devices. Make it just long enough to deliver true audience value (probably between 500 words / 90 seconds and 1,500 words / 6 minutes, as aiming to sustain attention for a longer period might be a dubious proposition)” (https://blogs.ubc.ca/etec523/2020/04/28/assignments/)
The end goal, really, was to highlight the sheer range of data that we are sharing, and the equally large range of future uses (good and not-so-good) to which the data could be put.
Hi Andrew,
Your assignment immediately caught my eye while scrolling through the A3 assignments. As I was reading through your great website, I was reminded of Black Mirror’s episode on social credit score (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nosedive_(Black_Mirror)), as well as China’s social credit system (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Credit_System). I think we all agree that we don’t want this kind of future, but it does seem like it is a very possible reality. Whenever I think about these type of futures I am left with thinking we should all just ditch our smartphones and cut it off at the source.
In your research, have you come across data privacy rights groups in Canada and North America? I would also be interested in any information you have about courses or course material we can provide to our students in high school.
Thanks!
Elvio
Hi Andrew, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your assignment. It was like playing a game where you choose your path, and the issues was elaborated for us in stories. The stories were captivating because it is relevant to us, and based on considerable facts (even the pessimist and optimistic ones!). I am also impressed that you kept the timeline consistent between all three scenarios, and provided enough detail for us to understand the impacts of privacy issues.
I went through security and privacy training at UBC when I was hired, and the person training us freaked us all out. Location data was apparently everywhere and companies can easily figure out who you are just by using analysis of your location data alone. Not to mention data collected to maximize profit for big corporations. You can actually contact Facebook to request what kind of data they have on you! On the other hand, I can see data collection from government being quite useful, for example, for public safety. It certainly is a difficult choice to make between privacy and convenience in the world we live in now. Thank you for your work!
Hi Andrew
Great presentation, I think the choice of Rise paired with weaving storytelling into the learning module was very effective and engaging in a topic that could come across as dry.
I think this topic is something that is very relevant in today’s society, I know after I watched documentaries like the great hack (https://youtu.be/iX8GxLP1FHo?si=qhxRTJIZtiRqTC1z) and the social dilemma the thought of privacy and my own personal data became something I considered. I think it is something that should be included in education today and is provided and easily accessible for people not in school. It seems like the responsibility lies on the consumer to research on their own to find out about where are data is going and not on the companies that are using it. Will be interested to see which future becomes reality.
I’ve just finished the first of four lectures on AI by Stuart Russell, founder of the Centre for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence at the University of California, Berkeley: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001216j
Here’s a transcript from around 54:28 mins that has a bearing on what I’m trying to imagine:
“If you take your phone out now and look at it, there are 50 or 100 corporate representatives sitting in your pocket sucking out as much money and data as they can. None of the things on your phone really represent your interests at all. What should happen is that there’s one app on your phone that represents you, that negotiates with the information suppliers and the travel agencies and whatever else on your behalf, only giving the information that’s absolutely necessary and even insisting that the information be given back, that transactions be completely oblivious, that the other party retains no record whatsoever of the transaction, whether it’s a search engine query or a purchase or anything else. This is technologically feasible. But the way the market has evolved it’s completely the other way around.”
Hi Andrew,
I really enjoyed going through your assignment. I feel like the Rise Articulate program was a great interface for the ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ type presentation you made. I had never really considered how far-reaching data privacy issues would be before: politics, insurance, universities applications, access to the internet, etc. I found it interesting how eerily similar our credit scores are compared to the score you described in the pessimistic option.
I also heard of this website today and was curious if you had explored present-options that exist like this while you were creating your project. I wonder how effective they are? https://joindeleteme.com/
Hi John
Thanks for checking it out. I did have apps like DeleteMe in mind, perhaps beefed-up by AI agents rather than relying on human experts. If I were to add anything to the prediction it would be that there would need to be some kind of emergent web standard to allow such tools to ‘see’ what data websites and apps are collecting. DeleteMe advertises a long list of sites that it can clean data from (https://joindeleteme.com/sites-we-remove-from/_) but the web is much larger – I imagine a tool that constantly scans the web looking at anywhere where your data is shared.