Steven Lohr explored the roots of the debate over personal data and privacy in a timely article in the New York Times this Sunday. An important theme of his article is best summed up by Craig Mundie of Microsoft, who says, “There’s no bad data, only bad uses of data.” At SIIA, we concur that if we want privacy protections to be truly meaningful, we should move away from restricting data collection, and instead work to prevent its harmful use.
Lohr’s article first describes a scenario in which a person is harmed because data from his or her online click stream is being collected. But even though this example is being used to illustrate the danger of data collection, it winds up confirming that true harm comes not from the collection, but the misuse of data. It might be harmful to an Internet user if predictions and inferences about his or her web travels make their way to a health insurer or potential employer. But the harm stems from data misuse, not its collection!
The online advertising industry collects click stream data now. It wants to use this data to improve the effectiveness and value of its online advertising. And the industry has already pledged to wall off online data from harmful use by isolating it from eligibility decisions regarding employment, health care, credit and insurance.
It’s crucial to allow industries to continue to collect data so it can be used to benefit society. For instance, data driven innovation’s contributions in the educational sphere have been well-documented. Two recent reports by the Center for Technology Innovation at the Brookings Institution, called Educational Success Stories and Big Data for Education, show how data analytic techniques can help schools better understand students’ learning approaches and challenges. Instead of relying on static, uniform tests, “instructors can analyze what students know and what techniques are most effective for each pupil. By focusing on data analytics, teachers can study learning in far more nuanced ways.”
There are many uses of data that are beneficial to society, and public policy should not obstruct them by constructing arbitrary barriers to data collection. The best way to respect individual privacy in the age of big data is to protect people from harmful uses of data. Industries like online advertising are already moving in this direction by developing best practices and self-regulation. Blanket prohibitions on data collection will only do more harm than good.
Mark MacCarthy, Vice President, Public Policy at SIIA, directs SIIA’s public policy initiatives in the areas of intellectual property enforcement, information privacy, cybersecurity, cloud computing and the promotion of educational technology. Follow the SIIA Public Policy team on Twitter at @SIIAPolicy