There has been much discussion in recent years about privacy and its loss. Each year seems to bring more surveillance, more corporate data-gathering and more information about us becoming public. Security cameras seem to be popping up everywhere and now we can be tracked by our cell phones.
Loss of privacy is a serious problem. However, there is a related issue that threatens us with loss of control over our own data. On several fronts, data that used to be in our possession has now moved to being in the physical possession of others, and we are dependent on their good will to have access to it.
The canceled check
Consider the humble cancelled check. In the old days, it was proof that you had paid. The stamps on the back proved that it had been through the banking system. In the case of a dispute with a merchant, you had a persuasive document to respond with. But we don’t get our checks back any longer.
For some time, banks have been scanning checks into their computer systems, or (before that) retaining the physical check on their premises. The rise of various electronic funds transfer options (including bank check cards) has led to the decline of the physical check.
What proof does an individual have now that something has been paid? In many cases, of course, the bank will produce a copy of the check, or reference can be made to some electronic record. But what if the bank makes an error, or you think it does? What if the bank decides, for some reason, not to work with you? You have nothing any longer but a line on a web page that you have paid a transaction, and why would a merchant believe that?
Electronic transactions threaten more than the check: As more and more transactions go electronic, the simple receipt is also disappearing or becoming optional.
A similar problem besets your email. If you use Microsoft Outlook or a similar system that uses a desktop client, then when you get your email, a copy is stored on your own computer.
On the other hand, if you access your email via a web interface, that email isn’t on your computer, it’s stored on the server of whatever service you are using. If you lose your Internet connection, you lose access not just to your new email, but to your entire history of email. There might even be an argument about if you own that email and could get your email back if your provider decided to cut you off for a late bill or because you violated some rule of theirs.
What happens if you are in a dispute with the company that provides your Internet access? How could you prevent them from deleting selected emails of yours that prove your case – indeed, you might not even remember that an email had been removed.
Social media
More and more of our electronic interaction takes place in an environment owned entirely by someone else, such as Facebook or other discussion forums. As these are privately owned, they tend to claim ownership over everything posted: your pictures, your writing and all of your comments. If you wrote something directly into their system, you don’t even have a copy of it. Of course, Facebook, as an example, does have a policy of offering to send you a copy of your personal data. That policy is not a protected legal guarantee, nor even a binding contract. They can change it at any time.
Do you own the cloud?
A term gaining in use is “cloud computing” or simply “the cloud.” It refers to the practice of having data live not on your computer, or even a computer at your business, but on computers that are connected to the Internet, so that you can access that data from anywhere. You don’t need your laptop to read past emails; you can log on with any computer, go to the proper web page and read your emails.
There is no doubt that the cloud, as a concept, offers some significant advantages. But, the control, and the ownership, has therefore shifted away from you to someone else.
Do you own your movies and books?
People long have built libraries; collections of books, records or videos that they liked. Often that was just for entertainment, but sometimes it preserved rare or anti-government documents.
Increasingly, these products also exist in the cloud and are downloaded when viewed and not saved.
If you had bought your book or record, you could enjoy it as often as you liked. A downloaded product potentially has to be paid for each time it is used and could be withheld at the whim of the company that holds the file.
Amazon caused some controversy when in 2009 it erased books previously downloaded to customers’ Kindles. Get that: Amazon reached into the memory of individual Kindles held by customers and, without notice or obtaining approval, deleted books that customers had paid for.
Amazon did give prompt refunds and argued that the company had to do this as it had discovered that the books were illegally sold in the first place. But that it had the power to do this marks a fundamental change. No one would ever tolerate Amazon breaking into their house and taking their books. That the books were authored by George Orwell just added more irony to the event.
How serious is this?
Of course, on a day-to-day basis, these trends I’ve cited have so far caused little harm. Banks and other companies routinely supply data to support their customers, even when it adversely affects the company that owns it. Amazon suffered massive negative publicity for what it did, and changed its policy – but it is still a self-generated policy, not a legal right.
These trends, however, describe a fundamental change in the power between the individual and the corporation. More and more of your power to prove things has drifted out of your control. Increasingly, you can be subject to random breakdowns or intentional threats. Even a company going bankrupt can disrupt your life by losing your critical records.
The digitization of records and the rise of “the cloud” undeniably produce significant benefits and efficiencies. But without a legal framework to protect your rights, you become vulnerable.