Wake Up About Data Privacy

How did we wake up about data privacy? A day not long ago, most non-technical people (and many tech insiders) believed that data privacy was unnecessary.

It was on the events surrounding CIA operative Edward Snowden that public opinion began to change. Edward Snowden revealed US government programs that collected our private data en masse. He underlined and bolded that the United States is performing blanket surveillance on any citizen or foreigner whose data passes through an American entity (like Google, Facebook, Verizon cell service, etc.).

It was the revelation of what the CIA and contractors were doing that many began to open their eyes. Many saw Snowden as the “Saint of Privacy”. They praised this whistleblower on a government that said they were doing one thing and doing the opposite.

Fast forward to today, what does Snowden say about the initiatives that came from that opinion shift?

What does Snowden think about GDPR and similar efforts?

“The problem isn’t data protection, the problem is data collection,” Snowden said. “Regulation and protection of data presume that the collection of data in the first place was proper, that it is appropriate, that it doesn’t represent a threat or a danger.”

GDPR threatens to impose fines of up to 4% of a company’s global annual revenues of 20 million euros ($22.3 million) — whichever is the higher amount.

“Today those fines don’t exist,” Snowden argued, “and until we see those fines every single year to the internet giants until they reform their behavior and begin complying not just with the letter but the spirit of the law, it is a paper tiger.”

Want to learn more about Snowden and his story? You can check out the movie about him or his book.