Here at MyIDMatters, we are no strangers to the misguided ways in which privacy is publicly discussed, either by the news or those in positions of power. By now, you should also be aware of the ways in which personal privacy is often dismissed or, even worse, denigrated. There are many strategies that companies and politicians utilize to justify their poor records on privacy and protections. Many of these reasons are rooted in neither facts nor evidence—and so therefore are circular and self-justifying.
Take the privacy paradox, for example. According to this idea, individual consumers claim to care about privacy, but they fail to protect it in their daily lives. It is a paradox that is often used to support a broader argument that individuals cannot be bothered to care about privacy and, subsequently, neither should anyone else. But just because individuals are not always vigilant when guarding their privacy does not mean that they do not care about its use. When individuals are frequently confronted with dense, turgid privacy policies that even the most knowledgeable experts find difficult to parse, it is no wonder that some sign away their privacy rights without knowing to what they are agreeing.
Not only does the privacy paradox fail to hold water, but it also ignores the obstacles that individuals must overcome to protect their privacy. The IAPP recently commissioned a Privacy and Consumer Trust Report which showed that 68% of global consumers are somewhat or very concerned about their online privacy. This is contrasted against the 60% of adults in the United States who believe that it is impossible to go through life without having their data collected. One immediate conclusion from these studies is that individuals care very much about what happens to their information: they just do not feel as though they have the power to protect the spread of that information. And therein lies the problem.
The privacy paradox is a self-reinforcing belief. The more people are told that they cannot protect their privacy and that no one they know cares enough to protect theirs either, the more they will give up their conviction that privacy protection is a right. This is compounded by the fact that, when enormous companies suffer breaches, billions upon billions of consumer records are made public. But individuals should know that they are not alone in their desire to protect themselves. And they should demand that their organizations and lawmakers protect their information.
Privacy
The Truth Is… We Care About Our Privacy
