Privacy Onus May Shift From Individual To Data Users

Derek Slater reported here last week on John Podesta's 79-page White House report on privacy issues in a post titled "Praise, criticism as groups dissect White House big data report." I'll just add to that some information from another related White House report issued on the same day. That report is from the Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, or PCAST titled "Big Data: A Technological Perspective (.pdf)." While I have the utmost respect for the esteemed Council, I cannot agree totally with their conclusions regarding privacy protections in the collection of data.

Let's begin with where the Council and I do wholeheartedly agree.

"Notice and consent is the practice of requiring individuals to give positive consent to the personal data collection practices of each individual app, program or web service. Only in some fantasy world do users actually read these notices and understand their implications before clicking to indicate their consent. The conceptual problem with notice and consent is that it fundamentally places the burden of privacy protection on the individual. Notice and consent creates a non‐level playing field in the implicit privacy negotiation between provider and user. The provider offers a complex, take‐it‐or‐leave‐it set of terms, while the user, in practice, can allocate only a few seconds to evaluating the offer...