Who will protect privacy rights in the era of wearable devices?

Hollywood nude photo scandal is still brewing

The Chen sex photo scandal is still fresh in people's memory, and may even be stored on some computer hard drives. Whether you have it or not, it has sparked a heated discussion on Internet privacy and security.

One wave has just subsided, and another wave is coming on the other side of the ocean with even greater force, and this time it is taking advantage of the trend of mobile Internet. This is the sensational Hollywood "pornographic photo scandal". When private photos of some of the most famous women in the world were exposed online, the media, experts, and losers were all looking for an answer: who leaked these "precious" photos?

When the final result points to Apple's iCloud, a typical product of the mobile Internet, we can't help but wonder whether our smart hardware still has privacy in the mobile Internet era? Especially based on wearable devices, when our every move is digitized, have we become transparent people in this era? Is it scary to think about this question?

Human flesh search makes you hang upside down in a minute

In the Internet age, although netizens can hide their real identities behind various online names, if you don't arouse public anger, it's fine. However, if you accidentally stir up this originally calm pond, you will instantly attract many people to watch, and even you will be unmasked by netizens in a short period of time, and then you will be hung up at the most conspicuous gate in the Internet world for public display. In China, there is a very vivid word to describe this behavior - human flesh search. When a person is "human flesh searched", it is more terrifying than being stripped naked and standing on the stage to dance erotically.

This is still the Internet era, based on the summary of our actions on the Internet. In the era of wearable devices, not only our physiological and psychological postures are digitized, but also the smart key that connects people and things will digitize all the characteristics of people and things.

We seem to be living in an age of transparency, an age where we are monitored all the time. In an age where laws, regulations and morality are absent, how can we live with a little privacy?

Can the “right to be forgotten” really be forgotten?

Although we don't seem to have high expectations for privacy in this area, or hope that "bad luck" will not happen to us, we still have this right.

The European Union's highest court ruled in May 2014 that users can remove their names or related historical events from search engine results pages, the so-called "right to be forgotten." According to the ruling, users can ask search engines to hide specific items in search results.

On June 26, 2014, Google announced that it had begun deleting certain content from search results in accordance with the ruling of the European Court of Justice, granting users the "right to be forgotten." Google said: Any request submitted by an individual must specify the link they want to delete and the reason for the deletion, and these reasons must satisfy Google's internal review team. For those requests that pass the review, Google will delete the relevant links from Google website search results in 28 EU member states.

Some foreign media pointed out that this "right to be forgotten" cannot be fully realized. This may be the most realistic portrayal of datafication. As long as the hard disk exists, the data still exists, but it just disappears at a certain level. With the opening of cloud services, perhaps our future data storage may not necessarily be on a specific server. Perhaps India has provided a cloud platform for calculating and analyzing heart rate, Africa has provided a cloud platform for calculating blood pressure, and the United States has provided a cloud platform for analyzing micro-expressions. Our data will be scattered and distributed in all corners of the world. It seems increasingly unlikely to completely make the data disappear, or to erase a person's trace from the earth.

As for domestic laws, we currently lack laws and regulations on personal privacy protection in the Internet era, or in the era of big data. The relevant definition has not yet been formed, and it seems that we have never had the luxury of such a right.

The conflict between big data commercialization and personal privacy

With the advent of the big data era, people have left their fragmented traces on various networked mobile devices, combined with major search engines, as well as records of their consumption in various places. With the help of ever-evolving data calculation and analysis, those who are interested in using this data can easily piece together a complete person in the modern sense with the help of these fragmented data information.

In the Internet age, people seem to feel that their privacy is threatened, and the mobile Internet and big data era have undoubtedly deepened this threat. In the big data era, data is regarded as the starting point and end point of all services. We seem to live in an environment with 360-degree surveillance without blind spots. It seems that there are millions of eyes around you staring at you, observing you in a panoramic way, and at the same time, you are completely overwhelmed by information coming from all directions.

For users, on the one hand, they are eager for the big data era to bring them more intimate and convenient services; on the other hand, they are always worried about their privacy and security being violated. This anxiety can be seen from the recent setbacks in the release of Google Glass. Even if Google Glass actually does nothing, it still cannot stop people from worrying about data security.

I once saw a somewhat funny news report that said Google could scan your emails and find out what you were going to do next. If it discovered through data analysis that you had suicidal tendencies, it would recommend several types of drugs or methods for suicide to ensure that you died safely.

In the era of big data, this is essentially a battle for privacy between businesses and between users and businesses. For businesses, whoever is closer to the privacy of users will have more opportunities; for users, protecting privacy seems to be a false proposition from the beginning.

Privacy in the age of wearables

The advent of the wearable device era will completely intensify the contradiction between personal privacy and the commercialization of big data, because the core of wearable devices is the mining and utilization of the value of personal data. At the same time, users are increasingly paying attention to their own privacy security and are working hard to find ways to protect this right.

The era of wearable devices is also the era of big data. In addition, the era of wearable devices will provide the best environment for the commercialization of big data. The establishment of the entire ecosystem of the wearable device era is based on the construction and collaboration of the platform, and what really supports all this is the acquisition, analysis and feedback of data.

How to find a balance between the commercialization of big data and the protection of user privacy in the era of wearable devices and establish a complete mechanism is a major issue that cannot be avoided in this era. The EU's "right to be forgotten" is based on deleting information that certain users believe violates personal privacy. I think this will make the problem more complicated in the process of specific implementation.

There are reports that Google has been caught in a "dilemma", where users demanded the deletion of information containing their names, and then major media outlets jointly expressed opposition, believing that this caused many of their reports to disappear.

The battle between the commercialization of big data and the protection of user privacy has just begun. The first step taken by the EU may have little effect, but at least it is reminding everyone that the commercialization of big data is an inevitable trend, and personal privacy protection is also gaining more and more responses. In the future, everyone will be given the right to defend their own privacy at the legal level.

The United States has also recently introduced relevant laws and regulations in an attempt to manage user data privacy. This is obviously of great significance for protecting users, but it is still difficult to balance the contradiction between business and privacy.

No matter how this contradiction evolves, there are three certainties. First, the era of digitalization of everything is an inevitable trend; second, people’s awareness of privacy rights will become stronger and stronger; third, countries’ awareness and supervision of data security are becoming more and more perfect. Perhaps in the future, we will find a relatively balanced fit between data privacy and commercialization.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.