The ‘other’ Digital Divide

A lot has been written in the technology press about the so-called “Digital Divide”, ie the difference between those who have access to broadband services and those that do not.

Be it shopping on Amazon, watching videos on YouTube, networking on Facebook, managing your bank account or buying music; having access to a global market of ideas is considered an essential part of modern life. On this basis the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ are easily delineated on the basis of infrastructure – a connection speed of 1Mb/s considered the absolute minimum.

In Ireland this situation is being addressed by the National Broadband Scheme, where a wireless solution by 3 is being rolled out to areas thus far deemed unprofitable by private operators to tread. What 3 can’t reach will be made up by other options, such as satellite broadband. The success or otherwise of the Scheme is a matter for another day, but the new reality is that broadband is an amenity, not a luxury.

 

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It could be argued, however, that there is another kind of digital divide that has little to do with quality of access to the Internet, but with concerns over what happens to one’s information once on it. Never mind basic competence in the use of productivity suites like Microsoft Office, an unwillingness to join social networks, watch video content or manage information from multiple sources represents an altogether different kind of digital divide, this one governed not by a fear of having personal information fall into the hands of nosey neighbours, identity theft by cyrbercriminals, and the harvesting of information like browsing habits for marketing purposes.

Surveys have shown that at least one in five employers check social network profiles before making a decision on hiring a candidate, and popular lore is full of anecdotes about people losing their jobs over content posted on Facebook pages. Relationships have crumbled, identities bought and sold on the black market and everything you post stays around forever – it’s enough to discourage anyone from engaging with the Digital World.

If you think the problem is overestimated consider the billions Google and Facebook make off ‘behavioural advertising’ where information based on Web browsing history and taste in music, music, books etc as shared on social networks is harvested for marketing purposes.

Consenting adults
So what can people do to make sure their personal data does not become raw material for marketing campaigns, or to ensure that the argument you have over Japanese animation at age 15 does not come back to haunt you in later life? In a culture where young people are growing up in a persistent state of sharing personal data, the absence of a gold standard by which States can measure their data protection laws is certain to become a massive issue as a generation brought up on twitter posts and Facebook updates enter the workforce.

Now the EC is taking up the challenge and championing consumers’ ‘right to be forgotten’ – i.e. the power to remove accounts and personal history comppletely.

As part of new proposals dealing with how online behaviour can be tracked and used, the EC is seeking to control how personal information is managed by businesses, government and legal establishments. In a statement the EC said people should have the option to withdraw consent to having their personal information processed by a service provider or any third party. Similarly, the EC has said that users should have the right to have their information deleted after it has become irrelevant or outdated. Consumers would also have control over their browsing history and have the right to switch their data over from one service to another without leaving anything behind.

The EC’s initial recommendations are due to be published early next year. If some degree of harmonisation can be achieved, it could go some way to bridging the Digital Divide between the faithful and the fearful.

In the age of the Internet where anyone can become a celebrity, the right to be forgotten may become the most important we have.