Digitally Curious

CHAPTER 17DATA PRIVACY AND REGULATION

In an era when information is as vital as currency, protecting personal data has become a crusade in its own right. The genesis of data privacy as a social and legal concept has transformed dramatically with the advent of the digital age. From the early days of simple password protection to today’s complex landscape of encryption and cybersecurity, the value and vulnerability of data have never been more important.

The 2016 Cambridge Analytica scandal brought the issue of data privacy and the rights of the individual to the front page of every UK newspaper and reverberated around the world.¹ Years on, though, and I wonder if consumers truly care about their own data or place a value on it.

Anton Christodoulu from Imagination discussed data privacy with me on The Digitally Curious Podcast.² During our conversation, he explained how so much of the data being collected on you is “implicit” data – information collected on you and your behaviour that you might not be aware of.

“Even before the current advances in AI, they can pretty much work out what you want or will do, even though you may not have done that before. They have so much data on you that they can predict you’re going to order a coffee in 20 minutes from the Starbucks on the high street in Sheffield for example.”

—Anton Christodoulu, Imagination

This might not identify you specifically, and it has its advantages. In Anton’s example, I could have a coffee waiting for me and a ...