Why Should We Celebrate Data Privacy Day?

Why Should We Celebrate Data Privacy Day?

Are you celebrating Data Privacy Day today, January 28, 2021? No? Well, here's why you should....

I would not be at all surprised if most people have not heard of Data Privacy Day; after all, it's only been around since 2007, where it was initiated by those ever-so-much-more progressive Europeans (so says wikipedia). And as such, it has not made much a dent in our public consciousness or social media here in the United States -- except perhaps when there's some huge data breach, and everyone rushes to search to see if their online identities have been compromised. 

Because I do suspect most of us know someone who's had that happen to them, right? Heck, it's even happened to me, when I was more lackadaisical in my online activities, and did not practice proper online hygiene. But when it comes to people having their credit cards stolen (virtually), they will snap to attention. And this is the connection for most people: data privacy, when practiced correctly by companies where we buy stuff online, helps to protect us from identity theft.  

There are, of course, many more implications of data privacy than just having your money stolen or your credit rating crushed. Cyberbullying, abusive sexting, and character defamation costs society dearly with each passing year, as we all get more proficient at using our social media, and those with criminal intent devise ever more sinister means to attack their victims. The online bullying has become such a serious concern that most schools and universities have had to devote considerable resources to preventing and treating it. I'm sure we've all heard or read about the damage it has done to people in our own communities even. No need to persuade people about the significance of that. 

Yet, this all does not really get to the true significance of data privacy, and its real potential. What is that potential? To really begin to develop the ways in which the Internet can be used to develop our own human potential, which has been held back for five thousand years of recorded history. Why do I say held back? Because that is exactly what recorded history is: a story of the repression of women so that men could wage their wars, and hold them hostage as property. The story of barbaric empires, where the stronger cultures enslaved or exploited the weaker cultures. The story of confused ideologies, which resulted in doomed and cruel efforts at expanding empires, whether it was the Crusades or the spread of Islam by military conquest. 

Will the Internet begin to allow to break free from this barbaric past? Well, if the online reaction to the murder of George Floyd last year is any indicator, I would say we are indeed headed in that direction. To be sure, the Internet is being used by forces of darkness (white supremacy groups, or China's lockdown on allowed content are prime examples); but, over time, as regulatory agencies catch up with the 21st century, I am in hopes that as more laws that enforce data privacy get passed, and any online business realizes that it will need to adhere to them, we will begin to see a shift in global standards in this area. 

And as these global standards in data privacy become embedded and followed, what could emerge will be an Internet that is safer for all to use -- even for the innocent child -- and we will begin to use this wondrous technology to help raise each other up, and fulfill our true human potential: to better serve and love one another, instead of living life in fear. 

What do you think? Could it happen? Well, only if we get to work and make it so...and is why I am shifting my own career direction into this field. 




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