The Future of Privacy - How Tech is Redefining Personal Information

Forecasting the future can be a dangerous endeavor, yet trends do appear over time.

Privacy has become an ever-shifting concept; just take note of how rapidly Apple, Facebook and Google have altered their policies regarding privacy.

Personal data consists of information that identifies an individual, such as their age, race, location and interests. It can be used to help identify them or make decisions based on this data.

Table of Contents

1. Big Data

Big data refers to large volumes of information accumulated from devices, sensors and other sources that is collected over time. Its main classifications are volume, velocity and variety.

Processing big data can be daunting for companies. Much of it is unstructured and does not fit neatly into traditional databases – examples being emails, videos and text data as well as sensor information from smart devices.

Velocity refers to the speed at which data streams into an organization and must be processed immediately for it to have any influence over business decisions and processes. This is often the case when using sensors-enabled devices like smartphones or medical devices which require instantaneous processing in order to be useful.

Privacy issues related to big data are complicated. While traditional forms of protection require informed consent before sharing data, big data allows individuals’ personal details to be used across multiple contexts and can potentially be reidentified at any point in time.

2. Artificial Intelligence

AI’s rapid advancement has contributed significantly to customer demand for protection of personal information. Gartner projects that by 2023, 65% of world populations will have modern privacy regulations protecting their data – such as laws providing them access to their own information as well as rights to delete or restrict it.

AI technology has already proven itself invaluable in terms of protecting our privacy, from social media apps using emoji prediction to search engines using your past searches, to facial recognition software that identifies potential fraud in bank accounts and cell phones.

At present, artificial intelligence development remains in its infancy and Congress faces a difficult task when trying to draft laws to regulate it. It may be difficult to distinguish between issues inherent to general AI development such as overfitting patterns with particular personal information use by AI programs and those specific to personal information use by them.

3. The Internet of Things

IoT (Internet of Things) technology enables automation, personalization and remote control; yet its advancement raises privacy issues that may be difficult to address.

Users are frequently unaware of how data collection occurs behind-the-scenes with IoT devices, as these typically look like traditional products without providing explicit privacy notices. Furthermore, users become habituated to their devices and may fail to recognize the implications of data collected.

Data collected by IoT devices can reveal sensitive personal information, such as an individual’s identity, activities, habits, preferences, medical condition or sexual orientation. Collecting this data could expose individuals to various privacy violations – including identity theft. Moreover, these devices could make inferences about social relationships or workplace environments that users might not normally consider when giving consent for sharing of their data.

4. Social Media

Privacy in today’s internet-driven world has become more fluid and context-specific over time, evidenced both by new legislation and shifting consumer preferences – for instance, younger social media users are growing fatigued with large platforms like Facebook and opting instead for niche apps that provide more interest-specific connections.

These changes are altering how people connect with each other and companies, how we generate and utilize data, and will eventually result in tools which are both more secure and user-friendly.

Security breaches and other unscrupulous activities may seem to loom large online privacy-wise, yet there are positive indications that things are on their way to improving. New laws will be implemented to safeguard your information while technology companies recognize they must provide better safeguards to safeguard it.