Getting closer to Base Camp: the sherpa’s are unpacking the tents

Privacy will finally be on the agenda of the next G8 meeting. In an encouraging sign G8 leaders’ ‘sherpas’ (or policy emissaries) are on the job to help them scale the issue.

I wrote a blog in March titled Towards a Global Privacy Framework: Arriving at Base Camp.  The basis for making this statement was that, "Privacy is becoming a global leadership issue at last" because the first announcement had just come out from the CNIL that privacy would be on the agenda of the next G8 meeting for the first time.

Big Data: Our Future or Censor?

Can we gain from the enormous economic benefits of Big Data while maintaining privacy? Is it time for an ethical approach to Search and Personalisation?

We have a choice in front of us:  Big Data is emerging as one of THE Big Issues.

It has immense potential to provide us with economic gain, offer individuals free and made-just-for-them services, drive innovation and much, much more.

So where is the catch?

And yes, there is a catch or two.  Just like so many ‘too good to be true’ stories, we need to be careful that this one too doesn’t end up that way.

Here are three evidence points.

Don’t Tread on My Privacy

One troubling implication for privacy with technological and policy development today is the unyielding belief that if somebody considers that something enhances our lives, it should be done.

We are living in a world where our ability to remain private is rapidly diminishing.  A recent article highlights that through data analytics, corporations will be able to track our activities, habits and locations with unprecedented precision.

A major step forward for ID Management? NSTIC strategy released by US White House

In a Press Release from the White House, the US Administration has just released a much more fully developed National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC).  Much is promised. 

Towards a Global Privacy Framework: Arriving at Base Camp

Transborder Accountability in Privacy Policy

2010: A Watershed Year for Privacy

Have all the developments and controversy in the handling of personal information during 2010 produced a long lasting sea change in the global privacy debate?

At the risk of mixing the aquatic metaphors, in 2010 it seemed that “when it rains, it pours”.  As law makers and regulators around the world scramble to draw up their battle plans, I think it is instructive to take a look at some of the major headlines of last year and their possible influence on the debate.

When we look back on 2010, it may prove to have been the tipping point in which privacy emerged from the peripheries of public awareness and onto the main stage.  The stories have become too prominent to ignore.  Big companies have been involved in big controversies involving very big breaches of privacy. 

Here are some of the highlights.

Call centres can be too helpful

Young people, social-networking, and privacy: debunking the myth

In the burgeoning digital social networking era, the oft-repeated assertion that “youth don’t care about privacy” has become a cliché. 

I have always felt that this was an inaccurate representation.  It creates the false dichotomy that somehow “older” people care more or are able to better manage their privacy online.  A variation on this theme that is just as much fallacy is that “youth don’t care about privacy any more”.

Privacy by Design: An oxymoron, an impossibility or the way to go? A Big Picture seminar in Brisbane

Actions speak louder than words: APEC Launches New Privacy Enforcement Initiative

Practical Privacy: What goes around …

Two of the last projects I initiated as Privacy Commissioner were:

•    The first Privacy Impact Assessment Guide; and
•    Privacy & Boards: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You.

The first PIA Guide was finalised and launched in August 2006 by my successor, Karen Curtis.  The launch and its subsequent promulgation and uptake within Government has been a real success story.