Privacy Like No One Is Watching

Sometimes it feels like everyone's eyes are on you. CTV cameras, hackers, on-line scrapers, cookies, are watching and tracking us and regulators are telling us what we need to do to meet compliance requirements.

Even facial recognition software at shopping malls are watching you – and sending you targeted specials to your phone as you walk by the stores in the mall!

We can’t expect that everyone who has collected our information, like the shopping malls, will protect your personal information.

We should each be aware of and concerned about how our personal information is collected, used, and disclosed with – and without – our knowledge and consent.

I think that we should practice privacy like no one is watching.

We each need to build privacy into everything that we do in our personal life and our business because it makes sense to us to do that—not because someone says that you should.

The internet can instantly connect us to webpages that answer our questions and promise stuff to fulfill our dreams.

But now, the internet is also connecting to physical things. These things provide a service or convenience that we want. For example, an app on your smart phone will start to warm up your car on a winter day so that you don't have to scrape the windows. But, if someone hacks your internet enabled phone and remotely controls your car while you are driving, well, that's an example of how internet connected things can now physically harm you.

Listen to more examples with Bruce Schneier's  interview on CBC podcast, SPARK,  talking about his book ‘Click Here to Kill Everybody'.

So, lets take control of our privacy by making sure that we have some solid privacy practices that we can follow every day. And prevent internet connected things from harming us and hackers, and other folks to collect our information without our consent.

Protect you identity. It isn't about keeping secrets. It is about protecting what makes you, you.

Practical Privacy Tips Infographic

I created this Practical Privacy Tips infographic to share with the librarians and tech folks attending The Alberta Library Netspeed conference this month. I shared my practical obsession with privacy and confidentiality during my keynote ‘Privacy Like No One Is Watching'.

By clicking on the image below, you will download your infographic that you can print.

Post it in your place of work to remind you to take control by using practical privacy tips.

Yes, you can share!