Aged to perfection?

Byline: Amna S. Sandhu

The internet is celebrating its 30th birthday this month. Currently, half the world is online and we should take this moment to celebrate how far the internet has developed and also as an opportunity to reflect how far it has yet to go. The relationship between people and internet has significantly evolved in the past three decades. It has become a public square acting as a library, doctors office, bank, retail outlet, workshop and so much more.

Globally, every day our interaction with internet produces enormous amounts of data, for example Google processes over 40,000 searches every second, almost 1.4 billion people are active on Facebook every day. Every minute people exchange 16 million text messages and 156 million emails. More data is being created as a result of increased application of internet in our daily lives. Anyone who has an online presence leaves a digital footprint. We leave behind fragments of personal information such as likes, comments and web searches. The data on its own may seem fairly innocuous but it provides pieces that make up a detailed picture about users when put together. To the internet world we are all just couple of ones and zeroes. Things like our CNIC number, credit card number, contact information, financial data, medical records, entertainment preferences, everything is stored as binary data somewhere.

The world is becoming a place where access to data is going to empower big tech companies that hold such data. The data can be sorted in various ways from behavioural preferences to medical issues to demographics to social engagements and online interaction. Given the advancement in software, the beauty of data is even more enhanced as it can be mined, analysed and correlated in any imaginable way. This depicts the value and power of people's data. However, our data is being used free of charge for example by the big tech companies that are commercializing it to create more customized products and services. Targeted advertising is a lifeline for digital businesses. But the primary question is who does the data really belong to?

Mora than a privacy issue, this can be regarded as a governance issue. Does the copyright law cover your DNA pattern or your social media viewing habits or your spending behaviours? Are your personal records going to be made available to the highest bidder? Do you understand what is protected or protectable or even private or public? Do users understand how...