Global Privacy Issues
In the past year, conversations have sparked all over the world about new technologies and their corresponding privacy issues. But what are the hot topics right now? And who are the various actors playing a role in these conversations? From facial recognition to the COVID-19 vaccine passports and the threat of cyberattacks, here we summarize some of the current privacy issues affecting the world.
Biometric facial recognition
Law enforcement agencies are consistently calling for greater surveillance, and this includes automated biometric facial recognition. Biometric facial recognition is now used in many parts of the world, including Europe and the US. You may have already seen it used at airports, stadiums, and even on your phone.
Last year, it was revealed Clearview AI analyzed billions of portrait photos from social media to develop a facial recognition database to identify anyone. If that alone wasn’t already a major privacy violation, they made their database available to US law enforcement agencies – from local police departments to federal agencies like ICE.
Many European countries also used Clearview AI. In Germany, photos of people were illegally collected on the Internet to feed the database. So far, the automated facial recognition has already been tested at the Südkreuz train station and used to identify G20 protesters in Hamburg.
The “Reclaim Your Face” initiative led by various European organizations to prevent this facial recognition surveillance from becoming the norm. Since 2021, the coalition against mass surveillance has been calling for an EU citizens’ initiative to ban the use of biometric surveillance technologies in public places. Among the many well-known organizations are EDRi, epicenter.works, Privacy International, and Digitalcourage. To you can find out more about the campaign and sign the petition, visit https://reclaimyourface.eu.
Algorithmic Bias
The systematic use of biometric data is also problematic because databases and algorithms now contribute to decisions that have far-reaching consequences for people. These algorithms can influence decisions about a person’s job opportunities or creditworthiness, or even misidentify people in criminal investigations. Since these technologies are predominantly developed by white men, their prejudices are often reflected in the technology.
The documentary “Coded Bias” shows how algorithms and artificial intelligence discriminate. The film accompanies Joy Buolamwini, the code expert, AI researcher, and founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, who is one of the leading figures in the discussion about AI and discriminatory technologies. Overall, Coded Bias is food for thought and a must-have for anyone interested in technology, civil rights, privacy, and surveillance. More here.
Digital COVID-19 vaccine certificate
In light of the partially successful COVID-19 vaccination campaigns, governments around the world have begun to consider introducing a standardized ID or “vaccination pass” to prove they have been vaccinated, have recovered, or have a negative test result.
In the EU, the member states have agreed on using the “Digital Green Certificate”, which will be tested in May and activated in June in countries such as Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, and Austria. After considerable concerns by data protection officers about the central storage of such sensitive data, a decentralized approach will be used and no personal data will be transferred.
In advance, various civil society organizations that campaign for data protection had warned in an open letter that such systems can easily lead to surveillance and discrimination.
The threat of cyber-attacks and privacy risks of employee monitoring
Due to the current situation, a significant number of employees have been and will continue to work from home. But, how secure are their online activities? Working from home has been shown to increase the attack surface for cybercriminals. Part of the problem: According to a survey by the Federal Office for Information Security, over 50% of companies invest less than 10% of their IT spending in cybersecurity. The smaller the company, the more serious the consequences. For small businesses with fewer than 50 employees, one in four cyberattacks has significant consequences.
Another issue, as many employers have adopted work from home policies, they’ve also adopted employee monitoring tools to monitor the activities of employees. Some employers are going as far as recording conversations and meetings. According to Gartner’s top predictions, up to 75% of all conversations in the workplace could be recorded by 2025. The fact that monitoring is already practiced at the workplace is proven by examples from companies such as Amazon, which already controls and monitors the performance of their employees. And, Lieferando is currently facing accusations of large-scale driver monitoring.
Where do we go from here?
With increasing digitization in all areas of life, the subject of data protection is also becoming more and more important. We believe that the right to privacy must be protected – both online and offline.
We encourage you to stay up to date on all things privacy by following investigative journalists, organizations dedicated to protecting your right to privacy, and joining the privacy community online.
Sign up for our Privacy Please! newsletter and stay connected with us on our social media channels to stay informed about current developments. Next week, we’ll be diving into US privacy trends. What topics should we look at in our next? Let us know on social or send us an email to: [email protected]
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