Privacy and Transparency in the Internet Age

Don Tapscott’s Huffington Post article Why Transparency and Privacy Should Go Hand in Hand is a must read. He highlights the growing issue of online transparency and its impact on businesses – and more importantly, on individuals. Key quote on the impact on business:

“People and institutions interacting with firms have unprecedented access to information about corporate behavior, operations, and performance. Armed with new tools to find information, a variety of stakeholders now scrutinize the firm like never before, informing others and organizing collective responses.”

He also points out that increased transparency is also impacting individuals:

“But the growing tsunami of data generated daily by digital interactions isn’t restricted to corporations. A lot of this data pertains to individuals, and much of it is controlled by third parties. Practical obscurity – the basis for privacy norms throughout history – is fast disappearing. More and more aspects of our lives are becoming observable, linkable and identifiable by others.”

He goes on to explain that we are all contributing to the decline in privacy and suggests we adjust our online behavior to limit potential damage.

This is already a huge issue that will become even bigger as more people understand the amount of personal data that is available on the Internet, and how easy it is collect, aggregate and analyze.

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