The GDPR & You!
You can definitely fall down a rabbit hole when you start looking into the ethical & legal issues on monitoring. Majority of the articles and information I found at first were about employee monitoring, took a bit to find some good resources on the topic.
We have all been there. One random google search, one mis-click on Facebook or one quick stop in a random parking lot because you have to call someone. Then it begins, the never ending ads for some random item, or incessant questions about your visit to ‘X’ place the other day. We like to joke about the little man in the phone or Big Brother, but what are the real ethical & legal issues that go along with monitoring millions of users on a website?
While the United States doesn’t have any federal data privacy law or central data protection authority that would enforce compliance, there are state-level regulations. The problem here is that, yes all states have data breach notification laws, but each state has a different idea of what that includes. As there are different definitions of ‘personal data’ and even further, there are arguments on what even defines a data breach. Not only this, but some states even have separate data disposal & data privacy laws. This becomes even more complex as a few years ago the EU implemented the GDPR. The GDPR, or General Data Protection Regulation, requires companies to prove they have a legitimate reason for holding onto your personal information -- Name, Contact info, location, race, sexual orientation -- they must also have your consent to keep this information. Plus, if you wanted, you could actually purge your information from their system.
You may be thinking, OK the EU implemented new rules, (A) why can’t we (B) how does that help me? I can answer both of these by explaining one simple thing. The GDPR. As we have seen with the numerous data breaches over the past 5 years, not to mention the huge Cambridge Analytica scandal, having uniform regulations would only help keep our information safe. As a majority of consumers want to know everything that each company has about them with the right to view, or delete \ opt out of, the GDPR has an extraordinary ability to help companies along with this new revolution in privacy. It states in these regulations that companies outside the EU that want to do business with EU citizens have to be GDPR compliant, plus it defines what personal information consists of. This is making more and more companies move towards becoming GDPR compliant proactively.
I found some great videos that explain some more in depth, but easy to understand:
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