Engadget reports that the ACLU, Fight For the Future, Color of Change, and a variety of other organizations have drafted a Security Pledge that they are calling on tech companies to sign. The pledge basically says that’s the companies who sign it are committed to protecting their users’ information and is a response to the developing Cambridge Analytics scandal, in which the British data company gained access to Facebook’s users’ private information without full consent and allegedly used the information to affect the 2016 presidential election.
The Security Pledge website recognizes the internet as a powerful tool that has granted a lot of opportunity to private citizens but has been misused by tech companies such as internet service providers, government agencies, surveillance companies, and data brokers to exploit the freedoms of its users. It states, “Companies and governments can exploit the massive troves of data companies have on people and weak links in internet security. They can twist the internet into something it was never meant to be: a weapon against the public.”
The pledge consists of five main points that the organizations have agreed tech companies should follow:
- Companies should pledge to only gather data that is directly relevant to their business
- Companies should protect the data that they gather.
- Companies should not allow government agency access to the data they gather.
- Companies should provide users with a more user-friendly way of knowing what information about them is being collected and how it is being used.
- Companies should make sure that their algorithms, though inherently biased, do not lead to any discriminatory practices and that those who are often discriminated against are protected by the company’s privacy policy.
The most interesting and complex of these are the last two. As of right now, there is really no way for the ordinary private citizen to view and understand exactly what data about them is being collected and how it’s being used. The Security Pledge website specifies that companies should “guarantee that users have an easy and free way to download all the data you have about them in a usable format” and “allow users to delete their entire account and permanently eliminate their data from your servers if they choose to.”
As far as discriminatory policies go, the website says that companies should not gather data “that is vulnerable to misuse, including information about your customers’ and employees’ immigration status, political views, national origin, nationality or religion, unless required by law or strictly necessary for the service your provide.” Neema Singh Guliani, ACLU legislative counsel, released a statement outlining the importance of protecting users from the misuse of their data that often inherently leads to discriminatory practices. “The way companies treat data can affect whether you are wrongly excluded from job or housing ads because of your gender, targeted for dubious financial products or have your security compromised,” she said. “Many companies have for too long ignored their obligation to treat data responsibly, prevent information from being used to discriminate, and provide users’ full control over how it is handled.”
The website lists tech companies that the pledge is relevant to, though none have signed it yet. Evan Greer, deputy director of Fight for the Future, sees this era as a “watershed moment for the internet,” as data is not only being weaponized, but citizens are beginning to recognize and understand the attacks on their privacy. “Cambridge Analytica is just the tip of the iceberg, and this problem doesn’t begin and end with Facebook,” he says. “If the largest tech companies take the steps outlined in the security pledge, it will change the course of human history for the better, and protect billions of people’s basic rights.”
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