Trend #1: Digital Advertising Comes of Age and Continues to Propel the Growth of Data Brokers and Markets

By Mary Ludloff & Terence Craig

Authors’ Note: As promised, this is trend number one in our take on the top ten privacy trends or the more things change, the more they stay the same. Although similar to David Lettermen’s Top Ten lists, our list is not as funny (unless we get points for sarcasm). We would like to remind you that sifting through the media coverage, books, blog posts, and research studies has been no easy task and trying to understand how all of it fits into the larger privacy landscape has been even harder. Added to that, our list is sure to elicit a litany of trends that we missed. We certainly hope that it does and welcome your input in our comments section! Now, on with the trend number one!

It is safe to say that continued media attention (mostly negative) has not had an impact on the rising use of third party tracking mechanisms to collect personal information. According to the Web Privacy Census, an undertaking sponsored by the Berkeley Center for Law and Technology, which measures and benchmarks Internet tracking over time:

• The number of cookies discovered on the top 100, 1,000, and 25,000 websites are all significantly increasing. For example, in May of 2012 5,795 cookies were found on the top 100 sites and in October of 2012 the number reached 6,485.
• The percentage of cookies set by a third party host was 84.7%. In other words, most of us are being tracked by a host of parties that we have no data collection agreement with.
• The top trackers were BlueKai (the largest online auction marketplace), Rubicon Project (one of the larger real-time bidding systems that sells ad space on web pages), and Adnxs (the advertising exchange for advertising exchanges).

Privacy and Big Data—Update on the Update

By: Mary Ludloff and Terence Craig

We’ve been promising an update to our book, Privacy and Big Data, since the just pre- and mostly post-Snowden era. When we proposed and wrote the book it was to fill a void. At the time, there was a lack of mainstream attention to the issues of privacy by the media and a lack of understanding of the issues and implications we all face in the digital world. As tech veterans of long standing, we have seen our world transformed for better and for worse by our industry. Much of the “worst” we chronicled in our book and at the time its release, many relegated our book and ourselves to the “foil hat” and “black helicopter” brigade.  Yes, that was a “we told you so” but we promise it’s the last one.

Then came the Snowden revelations which raised its own hailstorm of media attention, information, misinformation, and disinformation (primarily by our government officials, legislative leaders, and the President as well as the Prime Minister of the UK) on exactly how our data was being collected and what it was being used for. Cynics though we are, we wondered if digital privacy issues had finally reached a tipping point, that we would have a national conversation about civil liberties, how to fix FISA, what is the acceptable collection and use of our data by commercial and government entities, and moving forward, how our liberties and data could be protected from corporate and government spying.

New Year (2014) Rumination: Death of privacy as we know it? Or inflection point signaling better things to come?

By Mary Ludloff

I am, and always have been, a glass half-full kind of gal. In fact, way back in September 2011 when Terence and I published our book on Privacy and Big Data, I was far more optimistic than he was on the future of privacy—of course, it’s easy to sound optimistic when your co-author states that privacy is dead. (And yes, we are still working on our book update but we do have day jobs and a significant release in the works so it is slow going but going it is.)

At that time, those in the “digital privacy know” characterized our book as a decent overview. Our intent at the time was to help those NOT in the “digital privacy know” get their arms around the privacy issues from a legislative, corporate, and government perspective. To our surprise, those not in the know included lots of folks in the high tech community! We did a number of interviews and dealt with informed and somewhat uninformed media folk—those in the mainstream focused on social media and those on the fringes (left and right) wanted to do deep dives into legal issues, government uses of data, and fourth amendment rights. Some seemed to think that we were members of the tin foil hat brigade, others that we were naïve, and still others that we were on point.

Privacy and Big Data: Speaking at Strata East (NYC), Book Update, and Upcoming O’Reilly Webcast

By Mary Ludloff

There are times when Terence and I look at each other and say, “What on earth were we thinking?” And this is one of those times! PatternBuilders is crazy busy right now putting out release 3.0 of our Analytics Platform (the secret sauce for our analytics applications that we like to call data-science-in-a-box), ramping up on a funding round, working with partners on a University of Sydney research project on the impact of social media on a company’s stock price (a really fun project and a post about it is in the works), and, of course, supporting customers and prospects on their big data initiatives. So… since we did not have enough to do (sarcasm on), we decided it was time to update our book, participate in a pre-Strata East webcast, speak at the Strata Conference and the MongoDB User Group (that is collocated with Strata) in New York City! In the words of the immortal Bette Davis in All About Eve (and ever so slightly revised):

“Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night ride!”

Really, what were we thinking?????

Privacy, Big Data, Civil Rights, and Personalization Versus Discrimination: When does someone else’s problem become ours?

By Mary Ludloff

There has been a great deal of media attention on the benefits of big data (just look at our @bigdatapbi twitter stream) lately. Certainly, PatternBuilders has been busy helping financial markets become more efficient, working with data scientists on various research projects, as well as helping other businesses with their big data initiatives. In fact, there are a number of companies (like ours) that are making significant strides in reducing the costs associated with legacy big data systems, helping to move big data out of the early adopter phase and into the mainstream. But as technology innovates, there is usually some “bad” thrown in with all that good. Such is the case with big data and privacy.

Two thought provoking articles on privacy were published this month—both considering privacy through a civil rights prism. In “Big data is our generation’s civil rights issue, and we don’t know it,” Alistair Croll states that:

“Personalization” is another word for discrimination. We’re not discriminating if we tailor things to you based on what we know about you — right? That’s just better service.”

A quick thought on #BlackoutSopa day.

By Terence Craig

In our book Privacy & Big Data that was written pre-SOPA, Mary and I spent a fair amount of time looking at the ways that big media interests are pushing both technical and legislative solutions that were inimical to both privacy and free speech. On this day when the Internet is raising its collective voice against one of the most ill thought laws of the Internet age, I thought it would be a great time to quote from the conclusion of Chapter 4 – The Stakeholders.

“Powerful groups, like the MPAA and RIAA and their international counterparts, have borrowed from advertising’s playbook and extended it to every device we own. Today, it’s not just about tracking our online behavior; it’s about tracking what we do within the “four walls” of any device that we own and being able to remotely control them without our permission. These technologies and policies could end up delivering a mortal blow to privacy as well as cede to the government and IP holders unprecedented control over what media we are allowed to consume and share. However you look at this, it’s a pretty high price to pay to support an old business model that is unable to adapt to new technology.”

Tell your congressperson – SOPA/PIPA is bad for the Internet, bad for free speech and bad for due process and should be rejected! More info on the law here.

Privacy and Big Data: Conferences, Interviews, Webcasts, and a New Resource Page!

By Mary Ludloff

Greetings one and all! Terence and I have been very busy with our day, night, and weekend jobs! Naturally, in the midst of QA’ing the latest release of PatternBuilders Analytics Platform, our book commitments have also been on the rise with interviews, a podcast, and some upcoming conferences that we will be speaking at. The past few weeks have been a wee bit crazy for us, but also a lot of fun. Our book certainly has sparked some lively conversations:

• The rise of data collection by some known, and many unknown parties, as well the selling of that data to third parties for unknown (there’s that word again) uses.
• The role of government, regulation, and policies in the digital world we all inhabit.
• The various constituencies and their privacy agendas.
• How privacy could become a competitive advantage for those companies who are transparent about the collection and various uses of our data.

Three Things Everyone Should Know About Privacy (in honor of the Engaging Brand)

By Terence Craig

Last week I had the privilege of being interviewed by Anna Farmery for her podcast, “the Engaging Brand.” The topic was our book (Mary is the co-author) “Privacy and Big Data.” For those of you who may not know, the Engaging Brand is a multiple awarding winning, business-focused podcast with a large international audience.  The interview was filled with insightful questions and will be posted this early next week (please check it out as well as their other great content here). Anna is a prolific twitter commenter about all things social media and is well worth following (@engagingbrand).    Anna asked me to follow up with a post that talks about three things that everyone should know about privacy for her listeners, so here we go:

1. What happens in Vegas should stay in Vegas is a well know phrase and the Internet corollary is: What happens on the Web STAYS on the Web (forever).  Even if you trust the company you are sharing your information with, do you trust the person that buys your data from them, or the company they merge with, the government agency that serves them with a warrant, or the 14 year old that hacks their server? So keep it simple: Don’t share data that you are not comfortable with being public.
2. Don’t assume that local laws will protect your privacy – privacy laws differ markedly and which laws that apply to your data is a guessing game. Bottom line:  the intersection of local and international privacy laws almost never leads to more privacy.
3. Remember the positive – while it’s true that our lives are becoming a much more open book, it is also true that the actions of large corporations and governments are becoming more transparent as well. I firmly believe that this increased transparency will help the 21^st century avoid some of the horrors of the 20^th by ensuring that we know what is being done in our name.

Thanks again to Anna for this opportunity to reach out to her audience.  Please send me any questions or comments about the book, or privacy in general to big-privacy@patternbuilders.com or @terencecraig.  Also, we arranged for a special discount on our book, “Privacy and Big Data,” for The Engaging Brand audience:

• 50% off the electronic version
• 40% off the printed version

Simply enter AUTHD as the discount code at the O’Reilly book page.

Don’t Miss It! O’Reilly Webcast: The Evolution from Private to Public, October 28

By Mary Ludloff

Just a short reminder post about our upcoming O’Reilly webcast that explores the concept of privacy in the digital age. Terence is a panelist and I am helping out (please say hi to me in the comments section as I will be fielding questions for the Q&A at the end of the discussion and providing assistance when needed).  I must confess to all of you that when the panelists signed on (Jim Adler, danah boyd, Heather West, Terence too!), I was jumping up and down with “giddiness.” This is not a word that I use lightly as I pride myself on maintaining a calm demeanor (really) but together this group pretty much represents the full spectrum of the privacy landscape that Terence and I cover in our book, Privacy and Big Data:

• The companies that the panelists represent (Google, Intelius, Microsoft, and our very own PatternBuilders) are all, to one extent or another, driving the privacy debate.
• The panelists are not shy to share their opinions and those opinions are, shall we say, diverse (or perhaps contentious might be a better word).
• The panel questions (yes, I got a sneak peek) are designed to shine a light, not just on the privacy debate itself, but on how each panelist professionally and personally deals with privacy issues.

These folks are prolific writers, bloggers, twitterers (@jim_adler, @zephoria, @heatherwest, and @terencecraig), and speakers on all things related to privacy. What can I say? All we’re missing is a lawyer (no jokes please) but all the panelists have had to deal with legal issues and how they apply to company privacy policies so I think we’re covered!

The webcast is October 28, at 10:00 am Pacific—go here to sign up. I look forward to “commenting” with you!

O’Reilly Webcast On “The Evolution from Private to Public: Is There Privacy in the Digital Age?” Scheduled for October 28 (And it’s free)!

By Mary Ludloff

For those of you who attended our webcast on Privacy and Big Data (replays available) you may remember a little teaser at the end of it regarding an upcoming privacy panel that we are sponsoring. Well, details on the panel are now available and you can register for it here.  And I have got to say that it features a great group of privacy experts:

• Natalie Fonseca, the moderator, is the co-founder of Tech Policy Summit and the Privacy Identity Innovation Conference.
• Jim Adler, panelist, is the Chief Privacy Officer and General Manager of Data Systems at Intelius.
• danah boyd, panelist, is a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research (amongst many other affiliations) and is known for her work on youth engagement, privacy, and risky behaviors (some of her research is discussed in our book).
• Terence Craig, panelist, is the CEO/CTO of PatternBuilders, a frequent blogger and speaker on privacy issues, as well as my esteemed co-author on our book “Privacy and Big Data.”
• Betsy Masiello, panelist, is a Policy Manager on Google’s public policy team and is one of the leads for Google’s privacy efforts.

This esteemed panel is going to address “The Evolution from Private to Public: Is There Privacy in the Digital Age? Tune in on October 28, 10:00 AM PDT, for what promises to be a very lively discussion from panelists that are never shy about sharing their (varied) opinions as they take on the issue of how our private and public worlds are colliding in the digital age!