What is the Digital Copy of You?
In today’s digital age, we can’t live without technology. Printed paper is dying because everything we do is online. Our online presence is a digital copy of who we are. Electronic data that we put online, however, is not just for us to see and use, and it would be naïve of us to believe that anything we put online is entirely private and only viewed by us. So, who else is getting access to the digital copy of ourselves?
Data brokers are companies that collect our personal information, whether it be your name, birth, date, address, geo-location, favorite snack, or most gated frenemy. Most often our personal information is collected for marketing and/or advertising purposes. (Have you ever searched for Oreos and then moments later an Oreo advertisement pops up on your Instagram feed?) It does not matter the industry; whatever information we put online, it is possible it will end up being used for another purpose.
Did You Know This?
The type of data collected is never-ending, from what type of food you like to where you last parked your car. Many consumers might have recently purchased the Google home or Alexa device, marketed for making life easier. But what consumers do not know is that these devices are capable of tracking everything you do in your home. For example, Google Home is able to track whether alcohol is being consumed in the home; whether (and presumably, what kind of) smoking is taking place; whether teeth are being brushed, and for how long; and whether the water is left running during the teeth-brushing. The device can even determine the emotional state of the home’s occupants (based on voice and facial recognition) and determine whether foul language is being used.
There are a number of ways that companies can collect your information, including, but not limited to, cookies, e-score, geo-fencing, credit card use, social media activity, and facial-recognition cameras. For example, cookies work in a specific way. Let’s say you search for flights online to New York; a data broker might put a cookie on your computer indicating that you have performed such a search. Then, New York hotels and rental car agencies and others might bid to display their ads to you on websites. Data brokers have access to other information about consumers that helps businesses determine how likely an ad is to generate sales, and thus, how much to bid to show their ad.
Recently, many websites feature a pop up at the bottom of their page, indicating acceptance to collect cookies and data on the user’s activity. Inside this pop up is typically a hyperlink to a privacy policy that would explain what type of cookies are placed on the user’s computer. However, data shows that Americans are confused about privacy policies.
How can we protect consumers?
In recent years consumers may have noticed a difference in cookie collection at the bottom of a company website, asking them to “Accept Cookies” or change their privacy and cookie settings. The option to “opt-out” has become a more available option recently for consumers who click to change their privacy settings. But typically, consumers will choose a course of least resistance and click “Accept Cookies” just to get rid of the pop up on the website. Commentators have concluded that whether privacy choices are a matter of opting in or opting out makes no difference because website designers can design questions and use defaults in a way to secure the consent of nearly all visitors to a website.
Protection of online privacy at the federal level has fallen largely to the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”). The FTC has expanded to regulate consumer rights and protections and has brought a number of cases to enforce promises companies have made in their privacy policies, bringing claims for false and misleading statements. However, if a company does not have their own privacy policy, it would be beyond the scope of the FTC to bring a claim or action against the company. The FTC has issued a report calling for businesses to adopt “best practices” to protect private consumer information, stating privacy notices should be clear, shorter, and more standardized.
Despite private forces taking control of these issues, consumers require continued efforts on the expansion of laws that govern us to dutifully protect them. Since the internet boom, individuals are putting more and more of themselves online, and more hackers try to get this sensitive, personal information. It is imperative that the United States government does something to protect the data being used, stored, and collected by companies. It is important to have modern laws that will guarantee protection whenever these situations arise. We want to be proactive, not reactive.