CITIZENFOUR

CITIZENFOUR, 

où l’institutionnalisation de l’atteinte au respect de la vie privée

Ca commence comme dans un film d’espionnage en pleine guerre froide. L’histoire est classique : une rencontre avec un agent qui a des révélations à faire en matière de secret défense. Le format est connu : des noms de code et, sur un écran d’ordinateur, une correspondance cryptée, un défilé de caractères jaunes sur fond noir. Pourtant, la fiction laisse vite place à la réalité. 

Ce documentaire retrace l’histoire, vraie, du système de surveillance mondiale et généralisée mis en place par l’Agence américaine de sécurité (NSA) qui, au nom de la sécurité nationale, a espionné les conversations de millions de citoyens et d’organisations. On y découvre comment cet organisme d’Etat a recueilli et stocké, en toute illégalité, une quantité sans précédent de données privées, dans une opération d’une telle ampleur que mêmes les plus hautes autorités de certains Etats ont été mises sur écoute. 

L’intérêt du documentaire réside dans son narrateur puisque c’est Edward Snowden lui même. Pendant plusieurs jours, on le suit depuis la chambre d’hôtel où il est caché à Hong Kong quand le scandale éclate. L’histoire est connue, on sait ce que cet ancien informaticien de ancien employé de la CIA et de la NSA va nous dévoiler. Et pourtant, lorsqu’il apparaît à l’écran, ce qui frappe, c’est son aspect juvénile. Difficile alors d’imaginer que, avec ses allures de gendre idéal, ce jeune homme de 29 ans va nous faire la démonstration que, derrière les atteintes à notre vie privée, ce sont les piliers de nos démocraties qui menacent de s’effondrer, et d’entrainer avec eux nos  libertés les plus fondamentales. 

هل تعلم؟

هل تعلم؟

إن شركة فيسبوك تقوم بتقديم خدمة مجانية لمستخدمي فيسبوك، في مقابل ذلك تقوم بوضع البيانات في يد شركات الدعاية التي تستخدمها لزيادة أرباح عملائها عبر العرض المناسب من السلع والخدمات خلال فترة استخدامك للفيسبوك. ان المستخدم بالنسبة لفيسبوك هو مصدر السلعة الأساسية التي يعتمد عليها في توليد الربح وهي المعلومات. لذلك يهدف فيسبوك بكل ما يستطيع إلى 

جرك للمشاركة بأكبر قدر ممكن من معلوماتك على شبكات التواصل الاجتماعية

أيضاً، عند إنشاء حساب جديد على موقع التواصل الاجتماعي فيسبوك يقوم الأخير بوضع إعدادات الخصوصية لحسابك في حدها الأدنى

تقوم شركة فيسبوك بإعادة إعدادات الخصوصية إلى الحد الأدنى مع كل تعديل على سياسة فيسبوك الخاصة بالخصوصية.

You can run, you can hide, but you can’t escape Google.

There is a popular adage in Ecuador that says: Even if a monkey dresses up in silk, its still a monkey. I try to hide from google intentionally as much as I can. (I try to surf the web incognito, I have multiple gmail accounts for different purposes, hide my IP, etc)

However, Google knows me probably more than most of my peers in class do. (No I’m not intentionally hiding from them).

Here is what Google thinks of me, I'm impressed by some of their fairly accurate inferences.

Want to know what Google thinks of you? click on the following link:

Data privacy: a schizophrenic concern

Data privacy: a schizophrenic concern

With new technologies, consumers and internet users are both generating huge amounts of data and are increasing their concerns about who owns that information, how it can be misused, and for what. The number of people experiencing incidents of identity theft has been skyrocketing, and not to mention the threat of phishing which is particularly high on social media. Similarly, now the regular hacking of celebrities' private nude photos illustrates another type of violation of privacy based on stolen personal data from cyberspace.

One conclusion can be easily drawn from this example: private data has become increasingly vulnerable to cybercrime. Companies, governments, and global and local players are actively trying to develop actions against this new form of criminal activity through legislation, prevention, international cooperation and market solutions.

Indeed the opportunity for regulation and profit is huge. Today, the vast majority of internet users state being worried about on line privacy and security. However, identity theft, hacking, and phishing have something in common: they all rely on stolen information that is stored, saved and transmitted through social media and other avenues voluntarily by the “victims” themselves. This contradiction hides a bigger paradox: sharing more but giving less. Beyond this paradox, there might be a certain lack of consistency.  

What is the value of data?

What is the value of data?

Big data technology is allowing companies to collect big amounts of information about their customers. Without really knowing about it we are today giving out more information about our personal life and habits and we do it unconsciously and sometime consciously. While I was conducting my research on what value data has, I realized you could see it from two aspects.

1.     the core value(essence) of data

2.     what is the worth of data?

I’m just going to summarize a couple of points that I found most interesting in this two subjects about data value without being to lengthy.

If we look at the essence of data

·      Generate awareness that leads to a holistic view

·      Promotes dialog that creates deeper analysis

·      Challenges existing assumptions and gives us new insights

·      Put the greates value is what you discover from the data and put it into action

Now we look at the monetary value or the worth of data

·      Companies can easily put a value on there own data, they just need to look at the cost figures, its market value and its possibility go generate profits.

·      But when trying to value the data of other companies it becomes more trickier, because the value of data changes over time and depending on what the company is going to use the data for

·      The value of data tends to increase the more you use the data

·      Data that is used in several aspects of the business, for example tends to be more valuable to the business.

I have linked some interesting articles that I would like to share with who ever wants to read up a bit more.

Smile you are being watched

Smile you are being watched

Data privacy can be defined as “the aspect of information technology that deals with the ability an organization or individual has to determine what data in a computer system can be shared with third parties”.

Every time we open a bank account, hire a new service or open a profile online we are handing over personal information that can be processed to give personal details about ourselves.

Information on a single person is not really valuable but imagine what corporations can do when they own millions of pieces of data and they put them all together. The advertising industry for example has valued consumers data on over a billion dollars and uses data brokers to access the desired information. This “third party” can use the information to get to know consumers and approach them in a more assertive way. They can also use data to trace potential consumers and increase their business. This makes me question if we are actually executing our free will right. What percentage of our daily decisions is based on the “third party” influence?

Governments can also use data to monitor the population and track potential safety issues through the Internet and mobile phones.  

The healthcare industry is an other player on the data privacy game. The pharmaceutical companies can use data to determinate patterns that could guide their next research and development projects and allocate resources in a more efficient way.  The problem is that the usage of this information can also harm the consumers. If we assume that the genome sequence will be available for everyone in a near future and we imagine that the genetic information lands on the insurance companies hands, we could say that insurance rates will depend on what your health history will be. This could disrupt the health system, as we know it today.

One of the biggest problems with data privacy is that there is not currently a global regulation for it. Every country has different da policies that can be classified from limited to hard. Canada for example the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) apply to both consumers and employees while in China there is currently not a comprehensive data protection law.

If you want to consult the regulation in a particular country click here.