News
BackE-book readers send data about your reading behaviour to companies; fitness bracelets measure your pulse and provide health data to third parties... More and more companies are advertising products that are integrated into the internet, thus making our behaviour transparent. These devices allow companies an even more in-depth view of our lives - including creating personality profiles or predicting future behaviour. A study by the Austrian Chamber of Labour (AK) is now critically investigating this commercial digital surveillance. The 'Internet of Things' is giving rise to a new vision that is a nightmare for data protection.
It's not only smartphones and mobile apps that spy on you
Smartphones and mobiles apps are currently seen as the gateway for data collectors, but there is more. A study by the Viennese Institute for Critical Digital Culture (authored by Wolfie Christl) commissioned by the AK shows that more and more companies are offering devices - equipped with sensors and connected to the internet - that make our behaviour transparent. The amount of data that consumers themselves provide to data collectors is on the increase: e-book readers transfer data on reading behaviour to companies. Networked TVs provide information on movies watched. With fitness trackers or bracelets (wearables) consumers are not only surveying themselves in the name of health, but they are also providing data on pulse rate, sleep, and weight, for example, to Facebook friends and companies.
What your toothbrush knows about you
Hundreds of offers for measuring your own bodily functions and for "optimising the self" are already available on the market. For 2018, 80 million sold devices and 30 billion dollars turnover are predicted for this sector. But it's more dramatic than that: biometric headphones, t-shirts and bras can measure your pulse. Intelligent toothbrushes report brushing activity to your smartphone via bluetooth. With an app, brushing programmes can be set and brushing behaviour can be evaluated. A team of US researchers has developed health sensors that can be printed onto the skin like temporary tattoos. They measure temperature and forced applied.
Total surveillance of employees
Developers are also focusing on the working world. In America, the Theatro system enables employees to be located and provides an evaluation of their behaviour, productivity and movement patterns. Surveillance boxes in the car record driving behaviour around the clock and transmit acceleration rates, for example, to insurance companies who then make the insurance premium dependant on the data measured. In Spain, Great Britain and the USA this concept is already established.
What about privacy?
These developments give rise to countless questions regarding privacy and the desire for surveillance. Information on people's private life could be exploited even more intensively. Incorrect conclusions also have negative consequences on individuals. If no data on a person is available, companies may deem the risk of a customer relationship too high. The AK is therefore calling for preventative risk analyses. For the applicable data protection laws offer no solutions for digital risks. Currently, there is a great chasm between data protection rights and practices.
DEMANDS
More information:
Study by AK Wien concerning "Commercial digital surveillance in everyday life" (only in German)
Smartphones and mobiles apps are currently seen as the gateway for data collectors, but there is more. A study by the Viennese Institute for Critical Digital Culture (authored by Wolfie Christl) commissioned by the AK shows that more and more companies are offering devices - equipped with sensors and connected to the internet - that make our behaviour transparent. The amount of data that consumers themselves provide to data collectors is on the increase: e-book readers transfer data on reading behaviour to companies. Networked TVs provide information on movies watched. With fitness trackers or bracelets (wearables) consumers are not only surveying themselves in the name of health, but they are also providing data on pulse rate, sleep, and weight, for example, to Facebook friends and companies.
What your toothbrush knows about you
Hundreds of offers for measuring your own bodily functions and for "optimising the self" are already available on the market. For 2018, 80 million sold devices and 30 billion dollars turnover are predicted for this sector. But it's more dramatic than that: biometric headphones, t-shirts and bras can measure your pulse. Intelligent toothbrushes report brushing activity to your smartphone via bluetooth. With an app, brushing programmes can be set and brushing behaviour can be evaluated. A team of US researchers has developed health sensors that can be printed onto the skin like temporary tattoos. They measure temperature and forced applied.
Total surveillance of employees
Developers are also focusing on the working world. In America, the Theatro system enables employees to be located and provides an evaluation of their behaviour, productivity and movement patterns. Surveillance boxes in the car record driving behaviour around the clock and transmit acceleration rates, for example, to insurance companies who then make the insurance premium dependant on the data measured. In Spain, Great Britain and the USA this concept is already established.
What about privacy?
These developments give rise to countless questions regarding privacy and the desire for surveillance. Information on people's private life could be exploited even more intensively. Incorrect conclusions also have negative consequences on individuals. If no data on a person is available, companies may deem the risk of a customer relationship too high. The AK is therefore calling for preventative risk analyses. For the applicable data protection laws offer no solutions for digital risks. Currently, there is a great chasm between data protection rights and practices.
DEMANDS
- More protection: legislators and regulatory bodies must intervene with protective measures at the threat of data protection being undermined. Trends that are critical to data protection must be recognised early on. The design of business ideas relevant to data protection cannot be left solely to companies.
- Rules for data trading: providers often refer to declarations of consent that are far too vague. Usually, there is also a lack of voluntary consent - namely when the consumer has no alternative option other than not using the service at all. Wherever the voluntary and informed consent of consumers is purely theoretical, the protection of users must be regulated by law.
- Control through a data protection seal of quality: sensitive new trends should have to undergo data protection certification, for example the European privacy seal EuroPriSe.
- Improving the European draft for a data protection ordinance: stricter requirements for "informed consent" of those affected are needed before their personal data is processed and used for other (marketing) purposes. (International) enforceability, sanctioning and the equipping of regulatory bodies with adequate resources are equally important.
- Rethinking business models: providers need to develop business models that handle customer data in a responsible, and thus sparing, manner. Many users' trust in digital communication technologies has already been dented. The World Economic Forum noted back in 2012 that this lack of trust as regards personal data is a threat to the digital economy.
More information:
Study by AK Wien concerning "Commercial digital surveillance in everyday life" (only in German)