Private, secure... and digital?
ponders the notion of identity. It is basic to our humanity, he says; but increasingly, it presents itself as an accretion of records, a “person-shaped block of digital data” which may never be erased, even if we wish it. How does this new digital identity relate to our real, actual identities, which by definition are fluid and changing? We need to be careful with our personal data, Edwards continues, noting that anonymisation can be reversed; individuals can even be recognised, now, by a digital analysis of their gait. Privacy needs to be built into our data systems, and we should resist “authentication inflation”. The bottom line, he says, answering a question from the audience, is that individuals won’t part with their data if they don’t have confidence in how it is going to be used. At morning tea, I talk to a man from Datacom, the company behind the development of the online verified identity RealMe (formerly i-govt). Datacom is proud of their product, he says; it’s a world leader and crucial to the large-scale uptake of online services which is the goal of Better Public Services Result 10. As I listen, sipping my tea and munching a muffin, I have a feeling I will hear more about RealMe at this conference.
The danger of a Digital God
frameworks when it comes to the use of data, he says; we need accountability. We need to apply existing laws, expanding their scope so they can deal with questions of data privacy and the like. We need to manage our digital identity in an active, intelligent manner; one way is to insist on data minimisation, ensuring that only relevant, verified information is handed over. We need, he says, to plan both for success and failure when it comes to data use, and to learn from our failures and do better. If we want to, he concludes, we can do identity and privacy in a digital world, and to illustrate this he points to digital identity systems such as RealMe in New Zealand and myGOV in Australia, which he sees as moving, at the very least, in the right direction. My right hand is aching by now from all the notes I am scribbling, but it gets no rest for the moment, as up onto the stage walks Doc Searls, an American writer and blogger on internet themes who is also a member of two high-powered research centres at the University of California Santa Barbara and at Harvard. Here is someone abreast of the very latest thinking on ICT matters, and immediately he launches into a thought-provoking disquisition on privacy.
Taking back control
We’re very good at physical, real-world privacy, Searls points out – after all, we’ve had tens of thousands of years to develop privacy technologies such as clothes and
© Lucidwaters | Dreamstime.com - New Zealand Map Photo
Another Privacy Commissioner (albeit a former one) addresses us after the break – Malcolm Crompton, who held the office in Australia between 1999 and 2004. We
live in an age, he says, of super-connexion, where every aspect of society is being transformed by the application of data. Data-driven technologies have immense potential to improve our lives; they can make everything easier and quicker, from calling a cab to managing large-scale traffic flows in a city. Data, Crompton says, is an asset, and a growing one; but it is also a liability. Personal data can be misused by an organisation, or it can be released by accident, or it can be hacked. And it’s not just government agencies we have to worry about on this score – the fact is, the private sector is collecting our personal data much faster, and in much greater quantities, than the public sector is. In future, Crompton hazards, your insurance company may know all kinds of things about you based on the devices you wear, the products you buy, the services you use, and may adjust its premiums accordingly. Or, to take another example, advertisers may increasingly be able to target their advertising at you personally, based on a detailed knowledge of your habits and preferences gained from scanning your digital footprint. The danger, Crompton says, is that we as citizens end up as a surveyed, manipulated mass; the subjects of an all-seeing, unaccountable Digital God. I am beginning to feel depressed at this dystopian vision of the future, so it’s comforting to hear Crompton suggest that we can, in fact, manage the transition to a digital world successfully. We need ethical
Visitors on interactive map of New Zealand, Te Papa Museum, Wellington, 2013. 18 Public Sector July 2015