Lee & White

Google's Eric Schmidt spoke about privacy at its annual Big Tent event in Watford, about the use and misuse of personal data gathered and kept by his company. Whilst we cannot comment whether they walk the talk, we do need to take note of some of the points he made:

We (you ed.) need to fight for privacy or we are going to lose it

Yes we are - if we haven't lost it already. Our personal data is everywhere and just about anyone knows who we are and what we do - to the smallest details. And if they don't yet, they know how to get it.

We are being observed willingly and unwillingly, and are spreading very detailed and sensitive information about ourselves. These days, anyone can pick up a name and put a face and all the trimmings, and they would identify us spot on. It's not difficult to put the pieces together - especially if it is lying about everywhere, like a cookie trail right to your doorstep.

So yes, we do need to keep striving to keep control over our personal data. This is both a task for the data subjects (i.e. you) and the data controllers (i.e. the organisations, but also you).

There's this concern that we (Google ed.) are somehow going to misuse this data and we're not telling you.

Is it only concern? Perhaps, the feelings go deeper...

• coercion - the feeling that you are forcing them to give you their personal data because your services are needed and there are really no alternatives.
• suspicion - the feeling that you are going to sell them to the highest bidder.
• distrust - the feeling that they cannot trust you,  know that you are in fact not to be trusted - but cannot do a thing about it.
• concern - yes, the overall wondering and worrying about what you are going to do with their personal data and for how long.

Do they ever have that ultimate control of their property or it is all a lie?

The solution is simple - be truthful and honest about your processing. It sounds like a lesson in ethics and morality, but yes, that is the bottom line. Say what you are doing and going to do, and do what you say. Set this out in a clear and complete privacy policy stating what you will and will not do with their personal data, how they can count on you to do so or question you if you do not.

I (Eric Schmidt ed.) can assure from a privacy perspective... we would lose you and not get you back.

That's right, you won't get them back.

Google has a "clear business incentive" to protect user's data; do it properly or lose your business. Not handling personal data properly, not keeping the relationship with your data subject (i.e. the person behind the 'customer', 'supplier' or 'prospect') will make you lose them. Perhaps not immediately, as perhaps you are delivering a service which they need and only you can supply, but certainly in the longer term, when an alternative company rises which offers the same services and which does handle personal data properly.

So, are you going to start handling the personal data under your care properly, or are you waiting for that competitor to do so first?

And if privacy threatening technologies, human error and malicious predatory individuals (all of which are usually beyond our control) are not enough to strip us of who we are, let us give strangers the freedom to roam in our houses whilst we are abroad - roaming in their homes, exploring around their things and learning a thing or two (maybe more) about their lives, as they simultaneously learn about ours.

Perhaps our one safe place, where we are who we truly are, where our core identities hover, where children once looked upon as their own, is given away practically for "free" for a budget vacation - home exchange.

So what is home exchange? It is a fashionable and cheap way of holidaying where you exchange your home with another from a different area and agree to live in each other's homes during the period of your holiday. The database of available homes for exchange can be found on the website of a home exchange company.

Websites offering such services are filled with happy stories and wonderful testimonials of cheap holidays and free accomodation practically anywhere in the world. And another absolutely important reason for taking up this opportunity is the fact that you are immersed in the culture and lifestyle of your exchange partner.

All you need to do for this exchange:

• make contact,
• share enough about who you are and your family (including photos of your home),
• have a mutual agreement,
• cover your property with the necessary insurances,
• provide sufficient information about things to do/places to visit in your area,
• prepare your house (cleaning, tidying, preparing sheets, preparing your computer - perhaps changing your log in information and password?, cleaning up those cookies in your browser - all of which actually leads to giving someone a very good story about YOU)
• hide as much of your confidential and personal information such as bills, letters, ...)
• ... 
• Oh yes, and pay a very small membership fee to the home exchange company who is doing you the favour.

So how can one say no to such an offer with all the numerous benefits?

Well, apart from the time and expense actually spent (if you include spending your free/not so free-time on all the above before the trip and perhaps even getting an insurance coverage for something you would not have done if this did not come up), this is a chance of a lifetime.

Afterall, what is so bad about them knowing all about you and your family? The risk is minimal if you will know just as much about them right? There is no trump card held. It's all in good faith. A bond of trust formed between you and your exchange partner.

And any processing done purely in the course of personal or household activity is exempted from the law - hence, your exchange partner could say that whatever processing he did is within this exception. In addition, the Belgian data protection law acknowledges the data subject's free and informed consent to the processing of his personal information, which is the case before us isn't it?

All very good  - except when it comes to confidentiality and private life, even with the best of friends, and the closest of family, some things are better left guarded and unsaid. Food for thought?