The new privacy

I had an interesting session with some of the folk from Edelman UK’s digital team last week. At one point we talked a little about the concepts of privacy in 2012 and beyond. It seems that privacy in the old sense, that of the individual being able to keep all knowledge of anything and everything that they do, has passed. I have see some commentary in the past that this idea of privacy is one that has been something of a historical oddity, coinciding with the rise in city living seen since the industrial revolution. Before that, when we all mostly lived in agrarian communities, everyone locally knew everything about what everyone was doing; the internet has had the effect of making the local global. Not sure I entirely buy into that concept, but there is certainly something to it.

When it comes to disclosing information about ourselves, however, there needs to be some kind of transparency around “value exchange”. For example, when I use my Nectar card at a shop, I know that the data I am giving (about my shopping habits) is gaining me a small number of points (the reward). Whilst I’m certain that the financial value of the points is going to be lower than the overall value of the data to the retailers, if it means that I get a free shop at Christmas, and better targeted offers during the rest of the year, then I’m happy with that. Similarly, having my every move in London witnessed by CCTV is at the exchange of value of safer streets. Well, that’s the theory, anyway…

Where the value exchange is unclear or not (in our eyes) a fair exchange, is where we need to challenge the invasion of our privacy. Economically simplistic, I know, but I guess is the modern reality.

At the other end of this privacy debate, though, is the argument from Susan Greenfield amongst others that the generations entering into the socially-networked world struggle to understand the ideas of privacy through their over-disclosure; in a world where you make everything public, the ability to understand what one should keep private becomes increasingly difficult.