Data Privacy Day conversation calls for digital human rights

Maintaining more control and privacy of our information is crucial in today’s digital-centered world. Data Privacy Day, which takes place on January 28 every year, is a time to drive home this always relevant idea. To open up conversations and bring expertise to peers and newcomers alike, UTO hosted a student panel, moderated by ASU Chief Information and Digital Trust Officer Donna Kidwell.

Pictured left: Ben Gansky, Toby Shulruff, Elma Hajric, Donna Kidwell

Over 100 participants joined virtually to hear university and student cybersecurity leaders share insights into a number of topics related to data privacy and information security. A core concept was the comparison between individual, corporate and governmental responsibility. “Privacy is a team sport,” said Ben Gansky, PhD student at ASU with research interests and expertise in data governance.

Moving towards a more privacy-conscious internet 

Kidwell kicked off the discussion with a look at recent marketing advertisements that use privacy as their selling point. Together, the group watched Apple’s recent advertisement for its App Tracking Transparency (ATT), a feature that allows individuals to opt-in or opt-out of being tracked across their use of apps and websites. 

The ad – which can be viewed on YouTube here – was meant to showcase just how invasive data tracking can be. Rather than having seemingly invisible algorithms and cookies tracking your movement online, the ad depicted how this tracking would feel in-real life, where people – baristas, taxi drivers, bankers and more – continued to follow an individual after their transaction was complete. While both clever and illuminating, the student panel questioned the message. 

“I’m concerned,” said master’s student in public interest technology Toby Shulruff, “that [ad] shows a barista and a ride-share driver following a user.” This marketing, Shulruff admitted, paints a vivid picture of how corporations tap into an individual’s life, but “it’s not the everyday people [like the barista and driver] taking these actions, it’s the companies they work for trying to gain access to data.” In turn, this data is used in business models and to drive digital advertising campaigns. 

Gansky agreed. “This puts the focus on the individuals and how buying certain products will keep them safe,” he said, adding that a lot of the messages from many device manufacturers make privacy seem like a luxury good.

These messages are supported by the concept of “the crowded intrusion,” as Elma Hajric, PhD candidate in Human and Social Dimensions of Science and Technology, put it. Think about speaking about something out loud, something you’ve never searched for, then suddenly getting an ad about it.

Shulruff supported this definition. “There are so many factors that come into play to coerce us into data extraction,” she said. And, Hajric pointed out, even if a private company promises a level of privacy, they are still beholden to governments’ requests for data, some more than others.

But the prospect of data privacy is not entirely helpless. As Gansky said, “privacy is a team sport,” so policies can incorporate different perspectives. “Those policy processes can be slow,” Shulruff pointed out, but there is a prospect of corporation and individual responsibility informing the laws and regulations to come for data privacy. Hajric even supports the idea of bringing data privacy all the way up to a constitutional right. “We need digital human rights,” Gansky added.

“A great way to think about this is how it would impact our children, or the most vulnerable of our society,” Hajric said. “There needs to be an integration of social scientists into technical spaces,” she added, to consider ethical and moral quandaries before technology is unleashed on the world. Shulruff, Gansky and Hajric made clear in their conversation that a more secure future for our privacy and rights can be achieved.

Thinking about privacy year-round

“I’d like to see more of these conversations,” Kidwell said to the panel. “I’m so glad that you’re doing this work and that you’re meaningfully dedicating this time of your lives to thinking about data privacy and its questions.” This community education continues throughout the year beyond Data Privacy Day, but you can start by watching the full recording of this year’s event below. You can also view 2021’s Data Privacy Day conversation here.