What is data privacy and why is it so important?
Browsing, scrolling, checking directions, shopping online? That's all a data trail. That rewards program you just signed up for? Another data trail, gift wrapped, and sold off to companies. These companies can learn a lot from our data, and profit while doing so. That time you searched for those headphones on google and later saw an ad for the same pair while scrolling Youtube? We’re being targeted, and it's not a secret. It’s estimated that companies spend billions of dollars each year on acquiring our private data, and the companies selling that data profit from handing out our information. While data is often, but not always, anonymized (having any personally identifiable information removed), it still raises an important question: how much of our personal lives should be open to analysis?
As someone who has worked with geospatial data, I see both sides of this coin. On one hand, I, like everyone else, understand the importance of the right to privacy and the idea of my personal data being sold off and used by companies to profit, or target me, does not sit well.
On the other hand, tools like Placer.ai turn anonymized mobile phone locations into valuable insights, allowing us to create decisions from community based events to potential streetscaping projects. For example, using Placer to measure the impact of our BID events in order to improve the ones we plan in the future.
Placer understands to some degree that right to privacy is important by hiding from users the exact routes from one’s home to work, instead, just displaying from one general area to another, as well as hiding information from sensitive locations. More companies should follow Placer’s lead and value that balance of analyzing aggregated data, while keeping one’s privacy in mind.
For those of us who want to take steps to protect our data privacy, here are a few options:
Review your app permissions, such as location tracking.
Limit background data collection when you don’t need it by disabling the “Always allow” setting and choosing the “Only while using the app” when possible.
Utilize privacy-friendly browsers or search engines that don’t rely on tracking, or aim to prevent websites from tracking your data.
Data has the power to improve companies and communities, but without laws protecting our right to privacy, it's up to us to make sure that this data is handled responsibly. So while individuals can take steps to protect themselves, companies should make sure to be responsible when viewing and using private data. At Perch, we always make sure this is a priority.
