Part 1: The Future of Data Collection and Use

Picking up a torch lit by Viktor Mayer-Schönberger at last November’s IAPP Europe Data Protection Congress, the closing keynote panel discussion at the IAPP Data Protection Intensive last week in London explored the future of data collection and use, notice and choice, in a world that is increasingly connected and populated with devices that collect data without interfaces and without off buttons.

Moderated by Jules Polonetsky, CIPP/US, of the Future of Privacy Forum, the panel featured two of Mayer-Shönberger’s co-authors of the paper he presented last fall, and which has recently been updated: Peter Cullen, CIPP/US, general manager of Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Group, which has been doing extensive work in this area, and Fred Cate, long-time privacy researcher, and currently distinguished professor at Indiana University. They were joined by former UK ICO Richard Thomas and Chairman of the Dutch Data Protection Authority Jacob Kohnstamm.
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Part 2: The Answer to Notice and Choice? Put More Responsibility on the Data Collector

Part one of this series on the IAPP Data Protection Intensive in London, UK, explored the future of data collection and use, notice and choice, in a world that is increasingly connected and populated with devices that collect data without interfaces and without off buttons.

In part two, Peter Cullen, general manager of Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing Group, which has been doing extensive work in this area, discusses what he feels is the first part of the solution to current struggles with notice and consent.
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Part 3: Moving Toward Pragmatic Regulation

Richard Thomas, former UK ICO and currently global strategy advisor to the Centre for Information Policy Leadership at Hunton & Williams, talks in this video clip about the role of the regulator and how the current standard of notice and consent “provides too much permissiveness.”

Since the public will agree to anything in order to get at the service they want to use, and have no hope of reading a privacy policy that, like eBay’s, for example, is longer than Hamlet, companies can get consumers to allow almost anything to be done with their data.

“Seven-and-a-half-thousand people assigned their immortal soul” to Game Station, as part of the terms and conditions on the company’s website, Thomas notes.

So, what is to be done? Thomas offers his thoughts.
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Part 4: That Pesky Bit About Collection

Polishing off this series, a seated regulator finally gets to make his feelings heard. Dutch DPA Jacob Kohnstamm expresses his reservations with this focus on use, possibly at the expense of clear notice and consent at the point of collection. Even if we all agree that current methods of notice and choice aren’t working, does that mean we should abandon the investigation?

You can hear his entire rejoinder here.
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