Data-sharing has grown to become the “fuel and lubricant” of the world’s economy.
Deloitte Insights observes that data-sharing powers online and offline business models. “But with every year, as more data — in terms of volume, types, and richness — is shared, the potential for its misuse is rising,” warns Deloitte Insights.
The 2021 Deloitte Digital Consumer Trends Survey shows many people were aware of the risks, but continue to expand their online activity nonetheless. About 33,150 respondents in 20 countries were polled about their online activities and their views on data privacy,
In SA, it is not possible to go through the day while online without having your data collected by some entity.
Venturing online means enduring an avalanche of adverts for data-driven products and services.
In short “data is the new oil”.
However, the risk of data getting into the wrong hands is rarely considered by those who go online.
Lack of access control in personal data puts individuals at risk of fraud and identity theft.
The recent data breach experienced by credit bureau TransUnion has brought home the need for regulators to review and improve existing data privacy laws. A Brazilian hacker is demanding a more than R200m ransom for compromised data from the credit bureau.
This should be a wake-up call to everybody that personal data must be protected.
It is not easy to be diligent all the time, particularly about paying attention to privacy policies and the terms of data-driven services.
It is now fashionable to use a smartphone to scan the electronic menu in a restaurant. Accessing that digital menu might be the in-thing, but the risk remains that personal data collected by the restaurant can be abused.
At the weekend I went to Builders Warehouse Glen Eagles.
Before I could buy building materials, an assistant politely asked me to register my details for a store card. Like everyone else wanting to shop at the store, I complied and volunteered my ID number and home address.
Builders Warehouse sister company Makro has been issuing store cards for years — which means they have been collecting and storing customers’ data. Anyway, the Builders Warehouse assistant graciously handed over my new store card, allowing me to buy products I needed.
These days anyone driving through a security gate of a corporate building or estate will probably have their vehicle identification number (VIN) and driving licence scanned on a smart device by the security guard.
Personal data is collected in the process. What happens to this data is anyone’s guess.
And then there is artificial intelligence (AI).
By now we’ve all heard horror stories about AI manipulation regarding facial recognition in the identification of people suspected of crimes.
In Johannesburg’s southern suburbs, Vumacam has since 2019 been installing hundreds of surveillance cameras connected to Vuma Fibre. The company has not solicited the consent of communities to have their facial recognition data saved on its servers. Residents are not complaining because the company has promised to use the cameras to keep their areas safe.
Even children are not spared from having their data collected and stored somewhere — probably at risk of abuse.
Schoolchildren’s data is voluntarily handed to schools when they create G-Mail accounts to enable communication when they are at home. Tik Tok and PlayStation are also harvesting users’ data every day.
Right now, almost everyone’s data is everywhere.
We live in an age where we freely volunteer our data with little to no understanding of what companies do with the personal information they collect.
SA is in the infancy of dealing with new forms of disclosing data to corporations through data-driven services.
Deloitte Insights asserts that for most of the world’s billions of digital users, understanding data privacy may prove to be too baffling and too much of a chore for them to try.
“The likelihood that most consumers will continue to leave the use of their personal data up to the organisations that collect it implies that the responsibility for maintaining the right level of data privacy, and making control ofpersonal data easy to manage, should fall ever more to businesses and their regulators,” argues Deloitte Insights.
“Politicians and business leaders alike should act in the knowledge that most consumers will increasingly rely on them to shape policies on their behalf.
“These policies should balance business needs with consumer rights, or data-sharing may become a negative influence on society instead of the benefit to consumer experience it can and should be.”
SA’s Information Regulator should start beefing up the Protection of Personal Information Act (Popia) to react to new forms of data collection that may expose individuals’ personal data.
However, it should not create onerous regulations that stop companies doing business in the digital world.
Finally, we as the SApublic must educate ourselves about Popia, and self-regulate how we share our personal data. Companies must provide better tools to understand how our data is used.
For now, the information regulator must prove its mettle, but the issue of data privacy is like a maze.
• Lourie is a former correspondent for Thomson Reuters, Business Report, Fin24 and Finweek magazine. He is also founder and editor of techfinancials.co.za.
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