Page 465 - Kaleidoscope Academic Conference Proceedings 2024

Innovation and Digital Transformation for a Sustainable World

many, and in doing so humankind would change for the half of respondents believing the benefits of services
greater good. What many seemed to not appreciate was that outweighed their privacy concerns [33]. This unease is not
the developers of these new ways of working were not driven unfounded with stories of big tech overreach and behavioral
by altruism but instead by the capitalist model which already manipulation regularly hitting the worlds press. Examples
existed within society. In 1996, Borsook wrote a scathing include Cambridge Analytica, who were accused of
commentary for Mother Jones about the myopic regard manipulating voter opinions in the 2016 US elections and
Silicon Valley had toward regulation in the earlier years of 2016 UK Brexit vote via the illegal collection, analysis, and
technology development. They stated “Technolibertarians subsequent targeting of millions of Facebook accounts; the
rightfully worry about Big Bad Government, yet think Facebook Emotional Manipulation Experiment (2012); and
commerce unfettered can create all things bright and Project Alamo (2016). The American Psychological
beautiful—and so they disregard the real invader of privacy: Association notes that a core element of identity is ‘the
Corporate America seeking ever-better ways to exploit the feeling that one’s memories, goals, values, expectations, and
Net, to sell databases of consumer purchases and preferences, beliefs belong to the self [34]’ but can we be sure our
to track potential customers however it can” [26]. In other identities are our own whilst corporations manipulate what
words, we may have created new ways of doing things but we see and how we respond? For human rights standards to
the drivers for doing them never altered. be met, we must ensure that defense from psychological and
ideological manipulation and abuse is central to how we
3.1 Surveillance capitalism develop technology privacy models for the future.

Surveillance capitalism is one of the many ways W2.0 3.3 Governance Overreach and Censorship
privacy models failed us, and it has had wide implications.
Our data is harvested through social platforms, retailers, Democratic governments have been shown to disregard
healthcare providers, financial institutions, network services, concepts of individual rights with scandals such as the US
government departments, and IoT devices within our homes NSA Prism program, the use of Pegasus Spyware by
and operational infrastructures. We do this for the promise multiple governments, and the Indian governments use of the
of increased security, social connectivity, and simplified Aadhaar System. Human Rights Watch recently raised
consumerism. However, we have witnessed obvious privacy concerns regarding Indian authorities control over their
erosion through extensive data collection and advertising digital ecosystem stating that the risk of technology misuse
models created on the back of it. It is forecast there will be during the 2024 elections was considerable. They went on to
more than 29.4 billion IoT connected devices worldwide by call for technology companies to take additional steps to
2030 [27], Facebook collects 4 Petabytes of data per day and ensure the protection of human rights during India’s
has more than 2.2 billion active users per month [28] and it elections [35]. This is in addition to the extensive data
is predicted there will be 6.4 billion people connected to the surveillance being levied on the citizens of many non-
web through mobile devices by 2029 [29]. In turn Facebook democratic and pseudo-democratic countries, with reports of
generated $40.11 billion revenue in Q4 2023 [30] and the IoT facial recognition and mandatory data-sharing from tech
market generated revenue of $970 billion worldwide in 2022 companies to government bodies, as measures to control
[31]. These revenues are driven at least in part by the data political dissent. Many of these forms of surveillance have
being accessed by these corporations, making data one of the only been exposed through activist intervention such as
most valuable commodities in the world. Our personal data Wikileaks Vault 7, the Snowden Reports, and the Hacking
equates to the monetization of human attention and these Team leak, however privacy activist organizations have also
business models are now entrenched in global markets. The challenged government attempts to access personal
implementation of policy and governance alone is not information such as the UK Investigatory Powers Act,
enough to contain the demand of shareholders for more Australia’s Data Retention Law, and Turkeys Social Media
revenue, which requires more data. Therefore, for us to Regulation, stating that they are simply legal pathways to go
maintain our privacy and human rights, and to remove the around privacy and associated human rights.
commodity status assigned to us by corporations, we must
ensure a new set of proactive privacy design principles to Voltaire was attributed with saying, “I disapprove of what
underpin the reactive governance policies in place. you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”
[36] This same foundational idea has built the US Bill of
3.2 Trust Implications Rights Amendment 1 (freedom of speech and of the press),
ECHR A10 (freedom of expression), and UDHR A18
In 2023, 78% of people surveyed in the US stated that they (freedom of thought, conscience, and religion). Surveillance
trusted themselves to make correct decisions to protect their has far-reaching consequences regarding censorship, with
privacy and data, although 61% said they were skeptical their links through history of censorship tactics being an indicator
information would be treated responsibly [32]. This trend of of emerging or established authoritarian states. It is not a new
distrust is mirrored by a 2023 Deloitte survey, which concept, with book burning and book bans established as a
indicated 77% of smartphone users and 62% of smart home cornerstone of controlling knowledge and sending a message
device users were concerned about privacy on their devices. that non-conforming ideas and ideals would be met with
The study noted users sense of futility at trying to stop the similar heavy-handed tactics [37]. As we moved into the
misuse of their data, with 27% believing companies would cyberspace, these controls have been implemented by
track them no matter the measures they put in place, and only corporations on behalf of governing states or sometimes

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