It feels like it is one
step forward and two steps back at the moment. Yes, we’ve beefed up the
protection of personal identification data with the Protection of Personal
Information Act (POPIA) in South Africa, as well as its big brother, the
European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
But I’m wondering what
that means for ongoing digitalisation and innovation, as we disrupt our
businesses and markets to ensure we survive in the fourth industrial age. At
the heart of much of this innovation lies data, and I’m wondering if POPIA and
GDPR might be cutting off, or at least severely curtailing, this lifeblood.
A crucial part of
business transformation is tapping into the massive amount of data we have from
customers, our internal business operations, and the multitude of devices that
connect on our behalf without us even thinking about it. Look at Uber, the
poster child for disruption of an established business model. It uses location
data to link drivers with fares, and pricing and traffic algorithms to set the
price for the trip. And many (most?) of us, especially millennials, are more
than happy to share our personal identification data – in this case, location
and credit card details, with services that give us value in return.
These laws appear to be
taking a sledgehammer to the fact that we “pay” for services such as Facebook
with our data, and that many of these digital services rely on our, and
others’, data to work their magic. Organisations absolutely should be
transparent and ethical with how our data is stored and used, and which third
parties have access to it. But I am worried we have gone too far in the other
direction.
Certainly, if you do
not like Facebook’s use of your data, you can delete your Facebook profile and
not use the social media platform. (The company is researching the option for a
subscription-based, ads-free option, but I have my doubts over what the uptake
would be.) But, take for instance my car insurance, which includes vehicle
tracking to monitor my driving, reward me for good, safe driving habits, and
also sending out emergency services to me and my car in case of an accident or
breakdown. If I were to withhold my geolocation data, as I could do under the
GDPR, it would be impossible to offer me this service, which is unquestionably
of benefit to me.
Another example. There
is no doubt that smartphone-based traffic information services such as Google
Maps and Waze have made navigating cities at rush hour less of a chore. Yet
services like these rely on a community willing to share their location data.
The more data, the better the service, and conversely, the sparser the data,
the less helpful the service, until, if everyone opts out, the service fails.
Although the GDPR is an
EU legislation, you’ll have noticed the flurry of updated terms and conditions
when it launched in May this year. It goes to show how borderless the digital
world is, as it affects South African companies who have European customers,
newsletter subscribers, or shareholders, as Liberty Holdings may find out after
its June hack. And with the US, Australia and India already indicating they
will follow the European Union’s lead, there is no doubt this will soon be the
global standard.
There are a couple of
rights that the GDPR grants individuals that I am specifically concerned about
in terms of our data-driven future. Notably the right to have all or some of
your personal identification data erased; the right to request a company stop
processing your data; and finally, the right to ask for manual, not automatic
processing.
How does this synch
with a data-driven world where insights about our individual and collective
data drive progress and a better life? With quantum leaps forward in computer
processing power just around the corner, I wonder what life-improving
discoveries are going to be made by data crunching algorithms that we can’t
even dream about today. Yes, some of these are likely to be better ways to sell
us stuff, but others could be breakthroughs in medicine, or climate change, or
smarter cities or smarter apps making our lives easier. We need to be careful
about hamstringing our digital future, before we’ve even got there, and unfortunately
current legislation, if applied to the letter of the law, may well be doing
just that!
As published on ITWeb - 10th July 2018
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