Privacy Issues

Privacy and the security of information are two of the most significant technology theme elements corporations will face in the next ten years. I think the events leading up to the September 11^th bombings and the events after this willful act of terrorism will raise the level of consciousness around the world about accessed information and the information security marketplace. This will especially be true around more and more personally driven elements, such as our individual movements. When I talk about things like the wireless shirt, camera traffic enforcement, or even something as commercial as geo-positioning car navigation systems, the scary thought of "Big Brother" looms ominously in the foreground. The reality about many of these ubiquitous monitoring systems is that they all are fundamentally information tracking and monitoring tools. Unless the area of privacy is buttoned down much better than it is today, our society will never be able to evolve a certain sanity check for feeling free.

Additionally, no one knows for sure, at any time, where the information really resides, especially when it goes on the Internet. And even with all the attempts to encrypt and protect the privacy of individuals, there are many sloppy systems that have significant flaws. Unfortunately, since these flawed systems exist, records of personal information can permeate the Net without anyone's awareness once the crack in the armor is found. Global presence of networks, including the Internet, now presents surreal catacombs of places to hide and create mischief. Inasmuch as there is no guarantee that the information is riding the network in the U.S. or in any country where it might actually originate, deep and forceful laws are virtually impossible to mandate and enforce.

Protection of individual privacy is something that corporations are doing a moderate job in representing and enforcing. Generally, I believe companies that rally around the concepts of accountability and privacy protection will find that doing so will strengthen the brand more and more over the next couple of years. At this junction lies the problem of execution we just discussed. For example, banks recently have issued privacy information to their customers. The leaflets basically explain the privacy laws and how the banks will handle them, and then ask customers to decide whether to stay at the bank or leave.

People are confused. I would guess that 99 percent of the people just pick up these position statements and throw them away. No matter how we reach out to the individuals, as long as they're not being directly affected, privacy is not a high enough priority for them to read the legalese that must come with those things. But the minute they're personally affected by it, the idea that they gave up their rights raises their consciousness. It is a dichotomy right now because the information is replicated, gets sold, etc. It's just too overwhelming for people. I think the integrity of the business becomes the great and important differentiator as stories of privacy situations are told.

As another example of this position, if I gathered all of the data on how my financial providers handled my personal privacy, I'd probably have at least 15 different types of privacy areas just around my finances. I would have to read the legalese that would probably exceed 100 pages of privacy information. I can't do that. I put a tremendous amount of trust in those banks to not lie to me and to treat me in an upright and fair manner. I think the CTO of an organization has to be sure the company he or she represents is clearly conscious about the branding issue and understands that security and privacy have to be kept at the highest level of authority and conduct as possible.