Whether the NTIA discussions in search of a consensus mobile device privacy policy is dead or not, the long-playing drama is evidence in support of a fresh take on the matter. Privacy is not a goal that, once reached, is accomplished.
It is really a just-in-time transaction that needs to be as dynamic as the demands we make on our digital devices. If once is an anecdote, two are a coincidence but three are a trend, then dynamic or contextual privacy is trending with a bullet.
At the Privacy Identity and Innovation 2013 conference in Seattle, it was a presentation by the analysts of Forrester Research who put such a proposal for “contextual privacy” on the table. Noting the rise of sensor (whether fixed or mobile) data to add texture to our understanding of who and how technology is used, Fatemeh Khatibloo and Sarah Rotman Epps made a case that time and place are as much a part of delivering privacy as are transparency and security.
The implications of all this in the way people interact with each other and as consumers ought to have a profound effect on expectations.
That same week, it was TRUSTe, now a for-profit company creating digital tools to foster trusted relationships between companies and their customers, that added to the story. In a seminar devoted to mobile applications (clearly the inspiration for this new approach) the subject turned to two-sided coin of tracking and personalizing. While the larger public debate focused on surveillance (collection without notice), the more down-to-earth back-and-forth is focused on how to integrate what can be known into marketing that is meaningful, where “meaningful” is what consumers say it is.
The only choice is to be mindful of when, where and why they are online. It is in context that communication is most effective.
Then it was at the 2013 Academy of the International Association of Privacy Professionals, a fast-growing professional cadre embedded in government, companies and academia who are responsible for helping their organizations be responsible in the collection, storage and use of information. On the main stage was a presentation by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel, the authors of “Age of Context.”
Their point, too, was that the ubiquity of mobile devices, their miniaturization and persistent connection made it possible to create multidimensional relationships with people (socially, commercially, politically or any -ally you choose).
The Forrester folks set the stage for a change in the expectations of consumers, TRUSTe pointed at real-world approaches to delivering on those expectations and Scoble and Israel offered proof that those consumers, evermore demanding, can be satisfied. It seems this newest digital era is making “I want what I want when I want it” not a whine but a reasonable outcome.
