Maybe, others living in New Zealand have had more than I, but this person has
had only one: from
Google: and that one she ignored.
Jewel
--------------------------------------------------
From: "M. Taylor" <mk...@ucla.edu>
Sent: Saturday, May 26, 2018 2:14 PM
To: <viphone@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Why it's meaningless to accept a privacy policy, cNet
Why it's meaningless to accept a GDPR privacy policy
You're drowning in these thanks to the GDPR. But they leave out something
important.
By Laura Hautala, May 25, 2018 8:52 AM PDT
The European Union's General Protection Privacy Regulation takes effect
Friday, and your email inbox has been slowly choking on alerts about the new
privacy law.
You know, the dozens of privacy policy updates you've probably received in
the past few weeks. I'm talking about updates from email providers, social
media companies, banks and what seems like every random internet service
you've ever interacted with -- all letting you know how they're collecting
and using your data.
But here's the thing: When you click "accept" on a privacy policy, even if
you've read it from start to finish, you're most likely still in the dark
about what you're consenting to. That's because privacy policies don't
really tell you about all the things that can be done with your data. With
statistical analysis and, more recently, artificial intelligence, companies
that have your data can draw all kinds of inferences about you. And they use
that in ways you might never predict.
Using information about your browsing habits -- including products you've
shopped for, websites you've visited and search terms you've used --
companies can make informed guesses about your age, location, marital status
and, according to one infamous New York Times report, whether you're
pregnant.
"The typical consumer has no idea how this happens," said Lorrie Cranor,
director of the Carnegie Mellon Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory, who
served as head technologist at the US Fair Trade Commission under President
Barack Obama.
Cue the GDPR, a new law that gives EU residents more say in how their data
gets used. The trouble is, the law doesn't apply to anyone outside of the
EU.
Making inferences from your data
Privacy policies don't make it easy to wrap our minds around how data
collection can affect us. To start with, many internet users don't
understand how data collection tools work.
That's what researchers at Syracuse University and Sapienza University of
Rome concluded after speaking with people who thought their antivirus
software could stop websites and advertisers from tracking their browsing
activity. That's reasonable, but it's also wrong.
Researchers and journalists have also found some clues as to how personal
data collection can have negative consequences, intentional or not. They did
it by creating fake ads and accounts, and seeing what tech companies did
with the data.
Reporters from ProPublica, for example, bought housing-related ads on
Facebook that excluded groups from Facebook-assigned "ethnic affinity
groups." This appeared to fly in the face of housing laws that prohibit
discrimination on the basis or race or ethnicity. The findings prompted
Facebook to stop advertisers from excluding ethnic groups from seeing
certain types of ads.
And researchers at Carnegie Mellon University created fake user accounts and
collected information on Google display ads to see indications that men were
able to view job ads that women couldn't. Google attributed the findings to
factors that weren't based on gender, like an advertiser targeting websites
visited primarily by men.
Cranor said companies don't need AI in order to know to know what they do
about us. Good old-fashioned statistics can get number-crunchers pretty far
in predicting your interests. Things can really heat up when you "add AI to
the mix," she said, and that's when "you're going to see even more powerful
predictions."
This is what has privacy experts like Cranor concerned.
New power in the EU
The GDPR could make things more transparent for residents of the EU. The law
gives people the right to specify how they want their data used. That means
EU residents can say, "Sure, collect my data, but don't use it to tailor ads
for me."
They can also request copies of all the data a company has collected about
them and ask companies to delete their data. The fines for breaking the law
are steep -- up to 40 million euros or 2 percent of a company's annual
global revenue, whichever is higher.
The law is prompting updated privacy policies for the rest of us outside of
Europe -- and not a whole lot else. Yes, some companies including Microsoft,
Apple, Twitter and Facebook have indicated they'll extend at least some
GDPR-based rights to all their global users. But that's not the same.
As Forrester analyst Fatemeh Khatibloo pointed out, the European Union isn't
going to step in on your behalf if one of these companies doesn't live up to
its promises.
"If you're on North American soil, GDPR doesn't apply to you," she said.
First published May 25, 5:00 a.m. PT
Updated, 11:52 a.m.: Adds information about internet user research.
Original URL:
https://www.cnet.com/news/why-its-meaningless-to-accept-a-gdpr-privacy-polic
y/#ftag=CAD-09-10aai5b
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