Reclaim Your Name
23rd Computers Freedom and Privacy Conference
Keynote Address by Commissioner Julie Brill
Federal Trade Commission
Washington, DC
June 26, 2013
... Many consumers have been loath to examine too closely the price we pay, in terms of forfeiting control of our personal data, for all the convenience, communication, and fun of a free-ranging and mostly free cyberspace. We are vaguely aware that cookies attach to us wherever we go, tracking our every click and view. We tell Trip Advisor our travel plans, open our calendars to Google Now, and post our birthdays on Facebook. We broadcast pictures of our newborns on Instagram; ask questions about intimate medical conditions on WebMD; and inform diet sites what we ate that day and how long we spent at the gym. Google Maps, Twitter and Four Square know where we are. Uber, Capital BikeShare, and Metro’s trip planner know where we’re going and how we plan to get there.
We spew data every minute we walk the street, park our cars, or enter a building – the ubiquitous CCTV and security cameras blinking prettily in the background – every time we go online, use a mobile device, or hand a credit card to a merchant who is online or on mobile. We spend most of our days, and a good deal of our nights, surfing the web, tapping at apps, or powering on our smart
phones, constantly adding to the already bursting veins from which data miners are pulling pure gold. That’s where the “big” in “big data” comes from ...
Undoubtedly Target (and other companies in a similar position) provides some notice about how it collects and uses information to its
online shoppers. But there is nothing in the context of a retail purchase that implies notice and consent – nothing that reasonably informs the consumer her data might be collected to make predictions about sensitive health conditions or seeks her consent to do so. And if the store were to try to make the notice and consent explicit? Imagine walking into Target and reading a sign on the wall or a disclosure on a receipt that says: “We will analyze your purchases to predict what health conditions you have so that we can provide you with discounts and coupons you may want.” That clear statement would surprise – and alarm – most of us ...
Reclaim Your Name would empower the consumer to find out how brokers are collecting and using data; give her access to information that data brokers have amassed about her; allow her to opt-out if she learns a data broker is selling her information for
marketing purposes; and provide her the opportunity to correct errors in information used for substantive decisions – like credit, insurance, employment, and other benefits ...
http://www.ftc.gov/speeches/brill/130626computersfreedom.pdf
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