Trusting attitude in digital world 'poses privacy risks'

Identity theft will become more commonplace, mobile technology more invasive and the internet will increasingly make decisions on our behalf, experts say.

People need to be mindful to the threats technology poses to privacy.

Law Commissioner John Burrows says the potential for technology to be misused to exploit personal data is alarming.

"The potential for identity theft and what hackers can do is the main worry."

The Law Commission is reviewing the Privacy Act, and new legislation could be drafted to update the law later this year.

Among its suggestions are that making personal content public through digital media and social networking websites should in some cases trigger action from the Privacy Commissioner, and the use of surveillance technology be regulated.

Professor Burrows says his greatest nightmare is that five years from now technology will have progressed rapidly "and the law will have done absolutely nothing".

"Privacy has never been at the top of the agenda of any government I know of."

But the law cannot do everything and people need to educate themselves about the dangers and speak out when they feel that their privacy has been compromised, he says.

Privacy is undervalued and often sacrificed at the altar of progress, despite the potential social, financial and physical costs in the form of loss of information control, identity theft, harassment and stalking. "We talk about privacy, yet we sit in overcrowded cafes talking loudly on our cellphones about what we're having for dinner tonight. We put all sorts of stuff on Facebook not realising what might happen to it."

Google's head of privacy engineering Alma Whitten says the growing sophistication of smartphones and portable devices with high-quality cameras and sensors is a danger.

"As mobile devices get cheaper and more and more powerful, you have to start seeing the people carrying around these things as actors collecting data that might or might not be theirs."

Google has developed an application that lets people photograph recognisable objects and landmarks on certain smartphones, which automatically display search results about the object or item.

It is possible to do the same search for people's faces, but Google disabled this function, she says.

"You might have legitimate reasons for doing so. You might be really bad with names. But if I leave work late at night, I don't want someone on the street to take a picture of me and find out who I am and where I live. That's a scary thought.

"We need to have conversations about security and what checks and balances we need to have in these tools."

Martin Cocker, executive director of cyber watchdog Netsafe, urges people to educate themselves about the power of the "semantic web", in which web tools and services will "talk" to each other.

"Instead of going to Amazon to buy a book and having Amazon recommend a book, Amazon could talk to Facebook and YouTube and check your log and see what it is you're into."

This may seem convenient, but it could railroad people into certain decisions or services, effectively controlling their online lives.

"If you don't understand what the web is doing in terms of how it is making those decisions, then you'll end up living a life based on the decisions you've already made."

Those in control of personal data, such as the likes of Facebook, Google and Trade Me, hold the power, "but we can't rely on them to look after us".

"The problem is Kiwis are taking our trusting attitude into the digital world. We need to adjust."

Professor Burrows, Dr Whitten and Mr Cocker were speaking at the Privacy Awareness Week forum in Wellington.

- © Fairfax NZ News