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Playlist: Online privacy and electricity
Posted by Chau Tu
For Marketplace, Wednesday, December 1, 2010
The Federal Trade Commission released a report today on online privacy, and its chairman urged for the establishment of a Do Not Track system. The Federal Reserve also released some big information today -- the names and numbers involved in the bank bailout. The White House announced that it's reversing its decision on offshore drilling in the mid- and southern Atlantic coast and the west coast of Florida. Unemployment funding officially ran out today, but as Mitchell Hartman reports, this may not be helping the economy. Scott Tong, reporting from the Cancun climate conference, reported on states and companies who are taking the initiative on switching to clean energy, and the pros and cons. Commentator Robert Reich says the federal deficit should take a back seat. And here are the songs we played:
Instead of a "do not follow" (whatever that means) ... why not pass a simple law that says "you own your own digital identity"? And make this an inalienable right that can't be taken away from you.
Therefore every on-line service that collects your personal details is a custodian of your identity and has a moral and legal obligation to safeguard it from theft and misuse. To the point that if they themselves break that rule they too can be prosecuted. As an aside this is what the HIPAA Law tried to do for health care.
Now, if you choose to give up some of those rights, the custodian should inform you about what specifically you are giving up in some very simple terms. A great thinker Nick Givotovsky termed this "the digital deal." Or what am I giving up in order to obtain something for "free."
In order to make this happen a universal, open standard is needed for consumer scale, self asserted digital identity. Its basis is OpenId and has been around for a few years. Google and a few others have half-baked implementations that suit their own purpose of owning your digital identity - not facilitating your ownership. Given some teeth this whole issue could be fixed.
It would open up some tremendous new opportunities for digital commerce. For example - an individual could sell aspects of their identity such their television watching habits, instead of having it "stolen" by an aggregator.
Adrian, I agree with you. The interests of those currently collecting and controlling our data are simply at odds with our own personal interests. Our online selves are now as important as our offline selves. Our digital data is an asset that we own, not a natural resource for others to pillage.
We need protections for our digital identity. This "data revolution" is the wild wild west and unfortunately so many of us are just ill- or UN- informed about the consequences of not having a grip on our own digital data. I can see it unfolding like a bad sci-fi movie if we don't change something soon.
