Tag: Data privacy

20 years ago today, final post

Posted by on in Information Management
20 Year anniversary blog series

This blog is the final post of a series of reminiscences and predictions on all things information management, to celebrate 20 years of Metataxis.

So much has changed in the last twenty years – cloud services, data privacy, mobile devices, Microsoft 365’s pre-eminence. So much remains the same – folders, metadata, difficult to use systems. And finally, what transcends all this – the information itself. We’ll always need to manage it – somehow.

20 years ago today, part 5: Why do I need data privacy?

Posted by on in Data privacy, Data protection, GDPRLeave a comment

This post is a continuation of a series of reminiscences and predictions on all things
information management, to celebrate 20 years of Metataxis.

Twenty years ago, managed privacy of your data was a vague hope. We were all at the mercy of a mushrooming number of online providers (some well-behaved, many not). A whole generation grew-up with social media where openness was the norm. That generation then realised what we old-timers had been saying: that such openness was not always good. The world noticed these concerns and government bodies took action. And from the EU, GDPR was born.

20 years ago today, part 8: Strap on your jetpacks

Marc Stephenson 14th March 2022

This post is a continuation of a series of reminiscences and predictions on all thingsinformation management, to celebrate 20 years of Metataxis. Let’s now look to the future… Guessing what the future will hold is easy, guessing right is hard.

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How important is privacy really for Google?

Posted by on in Uncategorized

Each action we take on online platforms is commodified; actions are translated into data of monetary value for tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Apple. Privacy concerns not just the the data we keep online, but every action we take as well. This puts privacy, which is valued by the individual in direct opposition to profit, especially for Google which I have argued for decades is an advertising platform first and foremost, and a search engine second. So last week when the headline “Google to give people more power over their personal data” appeared in the Guardian, I read on with hesitancy. How much do Google developers really care about Privacy by Design?

Last month Apple introduced greater controls to app tracking, which at face value seems like a strong commitment to Privacy by Design. However, on learning that allowing users to turn off app tracking has a significant impact on competitor Facebook, I can’t help but be skeptical that corporate competition is the underlying motivation for this. Facebook is predictably vehemently opposed to turning off app tracking and is now presenting itself as an unlikely champion of small business.

In the context of all of this, what is Google proposing to offer consumers in terms of privacy? To be honest, on reading a summary of the developments proposed at last week’s conference I was slightly underwhelmed, as Google is limited to how much privacy tracking they lose without impacting their advertising business. The one area of interest for me was the discussion of subscription services where, like with YouTube, users pay for ad-free content. This may be inevitable should Google make a serious commitment to Privacy by Design.

It seems the old adage “If the service is free, the product is you” could never be more true.