Corona Kills Privacy
In times of trouble, individuals will act largely out of fear or greed. What would drive a hospital administrator to hoard 300 times more surgical masks at the first mention of a potential pandemic, or a governor to ban prescriptions of an existing drug for new outbreak purposes? No matter what your reasoning, the results mean eventual harm to someone else.
Did you buy more toilet paper than you needed?
There’s no doubt that some people will get rich during this current global crisis. If you sell toilet paper, masks, or even Hydroxychloroquine, you’re gonna have a Merry Christmas. But, if you sell crude oil, or massages, or wedding supplies… maybe not so much.
Some of these sad stories of unintended consequences will be absent of malice. But some… well, they will reek of that dank, dark stench of greed.
Let’s examine what is likely one of the most heinous — the windfall hording of sensitive, personal information.
You’ve no doubt heard of job sites. You may have even used one. They’re the people you go to when you’re out of work. Employers go to them to find new laborers. What makes such a site successful? Large caches of truthful data. When you fill out your curriculum vitae, they will goad you, “make sure to be completely honest about gaps in your employment or other issues — hiring managers will find out, and they frown on gaps.”
You might tell a job site things you would never tell even your own loan officer — all in the name of “doing the right thing”. But does that job site do the right thing in return?
Job sites are businesses. They have to make a profit. Today, more and more businesses are turning to a practice called “secondary uses of data” to supplement their profits. That means they sell your information. Not to the highest bidder, mind you, they sell it to any bidder. That likely includes your loan officer.
Did you think about that the last time you filled out a resume online? Did they tell you that they would be profiting from the bartering, trading, and outright selling for your data until long after you’re dead? Does your estate know that? These are all really great questions.
But this is nothing new, is it? Job sites have been doing this for years and getting away with it.
So, what does this have to do with Coronavirus? Plenty. And it stinks to high heaven.
Your employer is likely going to lay people off…probably already has. It’s a difficult thing to stomach for any business, and many are holding their noses and doing it even as we speak. But what if someone approached your business and offered money…potentially serious money…if they just upload all their HR data for those 10,000 people they are about to lay off into existing job sites? They could even spin it as “social good” and tell you they are doing it in your best interest all the while.
What if I told you that’s happening even now? Would it make you as irate as I am? Well wait… it might get worse.
What if new charities (that’s right, I said charities) are being spun up to work with these and other “for-profit” data hoarders to collect everything, and I mean everything about you as your life goes from bad to worse? In the name of helping you, they can collect donations, get free donated labor, build new interfaces (whatever that means), and actually speed up the vacuum as it sucks up all the data about you that they can so they can profit off you for the rest of your life — maybe even unto your demise?
I would call that reprehensible, because there are no words left to describe something so insidiously heinous.
To help us make sense out of this, and to perhaps help us all find hope, we are joined today by J. Oliver Glasgow, Partner in the Privacy Co-op, a cutting edge group that’s helping the average person gain back some control over their data. Thanks for joining us.
“Thanks for having me. It’s a pleasure.”
Is it as bad as I have described, or am I making too much of what’s going on?
“It’s that bad, and worse. Your analogy of hoarding is spot on. When the virus was first announced and people didn’t think much about it, I’d say…in late January, I had to fly to the west coast for a conference. I remembered SARS and thought, ‘what the heck, I’ll run down to the drug store and buy a mask.’ But when I got there, I was stunned. The clerk said, ‘We’re sold out, and so are all the other drug stores in town, and good luck ordering them, Amazon has been out of stock for two weeks now.
“Needless to say, I was a tad surprised, but went on my trip anyway… but seriously thinking more about it than I had before stopping by that drug store. So, let me ask you a question, ‘What if I had contracted the disease and died, all because someone, likely hospitals or maybe even foreign governments, had already started panic buying? Were they doing it to save my life? Were they afraid? Or did they just see an opportunity?
“That’s exactly what’s going on with the current data gathering. Businesses are seeing an opportunity, and they are cashing in on it…big time.”
So what could be the harm? I mean if a job site or a clinical study, or even a government is trying to help you out, what would be so terrible about them gathering your data?
“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with gathering data, and we should be completely forthright and truthful during these crucial times. It’s actually our duty. But they have a duty as well. If they begin profiteering from the secondary use, or sale of our data, especially sensitive personal information, it could harm us potentially just as bad as my having to fly without a mask back in January. But the risk is actually greater, right? In my case, there were relatively few people sick in California at the time, so my odds were pretty good. But if a business is collecting your data, there’s about a 100% certainty that they will eventually exploit it. And who knows how detrimental that may be to you in the long run?”
OK, I get it, but what can be done? I mean, we need them now. Services like these are too big to be shut down and replicated or replaced. We have to just trust them, right?
“Wrong. There is something positive you and your family can do right now. That’s precisely why we created the Privacy Co-op. To help people in times such as these.”
Does this involve pitchforks and torches?
“Ha…not quite. First off, let’s start with the position that your employer is likely a good company. Let’s start there. They, like most businesses today, probably have a privacy policy and employee data policy.
“Now, what a lot of people don’t understand is that those are actually contracts. And, backed by certain regulations, they can be very powerful for you.
“Many of them detail the secondary use of data, what we were calling exploitation earlier, and even make available ways for you to opt-out of them doing that.”
I’ve read through a few of them, more than I cared to, and making them stop is so convoluted and hard that I just gave up.
“You’re not alone. A lot of our members have felt the same way. But they found that joining a cooperative where we work as a team makes things a lot easier.”
So what does your team do?
“Well, for one thing, we tell your employer not to sell your data if that is what you wish. But more importantly, we make it possible for them to join us as an affiliate. That means they now have a direct way to license the use of your data. That’s something new. The money comes in to the co-op from all sorts of businesses licensing the use or our data, and we operate as a non-profit, passing all leftover income directly to our members as dividends.”
Wow! I haven’t heard of that before.
“It’s a new use of actually very old law. Producer Co-ops have been around for hundreds of years — like farmer co-ops. We’ve just never seen ourselves in the modern age of technology as producers…that is, before today.”
What are we producing?
“Data. Which begets information. Which begets information rights. Which can be licensed. We each own the rights to our own information we create, and that includes the data that these businesses are gathering on us.”
So, do we want to shut them down, or just let them use our data? I mean, if they’re going to pay for the license to use it, don’t we want them to?
“That’s completely up to each individual. When people join our co-op as members, they start to gain dividends for the use of their information, yes, but they also get the ability to opt-out of any business — that means, ‘make them stop’.”
Ah, but by doing all the hard stuff in their privacy policy, right?
“Well that’s where we have some good news. Because we are a co-op, we can work on the behalf of all our members. That means if 25 people want to opt out of everything a certain business is doing, then we can take care of that in one simple email or fax to their legal department. And since their privacy and data use policies are actually contracts that they created and put out there…well…they usually comply.”
You mean, they just do it without any fuss?
“We’ve not been turned down yet.”
Wow. Not even once?
“Not even. But in most cases, these businesses come back to us and ask how they can work with us, which just means more dividends for our members.”
So, how can this help today with the current Coronavirus crisis?
“To begin with, our board met, and given some recent changes in co-op law, which were timed just right to help with this crisis, we can and have lowered the cost to join the co-op down to $25 per person for the foreseeable future.”
Is that per month, per year…?
“That’s per life!”
What?
“That’s right, it’s a lifetime membership. And due to some recent changes in the law, we are now able to lower that down to just $25. It’s actually you buying a share in the co-op. That doesn’t go away unless you sell it back to us — and so far, no one has done that.”
I’ll take a hundred!
“Ha…well, it’s co-op law that each person can only own one share. You would have no more or less ownership as I do as a Founder. I own one share as well. That’s how co-ops work.”
Ok… so it’s cheap to get in and I can make some money. Is that it?
“No, and this is the good part. Legally, we can sell prepaid memberships to our affiliates for a much lower price. That means that all of the businesses that are being forced to consider laying off their employees can buy them memberships in the co-op on the way out for a lower price than the employees could individually. That gives these businesses an ability to license the use of the data they already have. This clears them of any legal complications and mitigates risk of government infractions.”
“Because you become a member, and they become an affiliate, there are agreements in place that protect everyone, and benefits everyone. And best of all, if you smell something funny, you can opt-out of any business — not just your employer.”
What does this mean to the data aggregators, like the job sites?
“Well, it could make them a little nervous. Some are at first. I mean, our members potentially could pull the rug right out from under them. But let’s get back to thinking the best of everybody for a moment. Even the aggregators could become affiliates of the co-op. They could agree to our terms, do things in the right way by our members, and be even more profitable in the long run. That’s the right way to do it.”
Are they buying our data? I wouldn’t like that.
“No. The co-op never sells data, at all, period. Our affiliates are just paying a licensing fee to use what they already have collected on us.”
Wow. Why hasn’t someone like Facebook or Google thought of this before?
“Well, I can’t really talk about the companies we are already in talks with, but let’s just say that we have been asked to join a technical working group that a lot of companies like those also belong to, and we are developing ways for all of them to more rapidly onboard to our way of licensing for our members.”
So, a person who loses their job today, if their employer pays for their membership, they’ll not only benefit from that one license…
“They’ll benefit from all of them. The one-time membership gets them licensing from all of our affiliates, whether that member is a customer of that affiliate or not. It’s a co-op so all the dividends are split evenly.
“If you shop at one store and they’re an affiliate, and another store is also but you don’t shop there, you’ll get an even cut of all of the licensing. One member, one share, one dividend. But more importantly, you’ll be able to opt-out of any of them as you wish.”
How does that work?
“It’s easy. You can go to our website, privacyco-op.com…”
I’m there now.
“Good, now click on the search menu option and enter any business you like. Click ‘Make Them Stop’ button, and tell us how they know you. You know…like an email or phone number or something…and we’ll take care of the rest.”
Wow. This is genuinely cool news. But will this mean they close my account?
“Absolutely not. We are just opting you, and anyone who feels likewise, in or out of the secondary use of your data as stated in their privacy policy. We would never want you to lose valued services or products. Especially during this Coronavirus crisis. We want your employer to help you find a new job right away. We applaud the charities that are standing up amazing tech fast to help with just that. And we appreciate the role that job sites can play doing exactly what they do so well. But, and that’s an important but, we also are watchful hawks on the side of our members making certain they are not exploited during any of this.”
Thank you, Mr. Glasgow. I never thought of data in the same light as toilet paper before, but this helps.
“Ha…thank you. And your readers can find us at privacyco-op.com. Let’s hope they don’t lose their job. But if they do, please, please, please remember to urge your employer to join the co-op and pay for your membership, or alternatively, they can take advantage of our new low price by joining today. We can only protect them if they join.”
Yes, of course, and thanks for this hopeful message just when we needed a little hope.
“My pleasure.”