Simon Davies guest lectures on protecting privacy

ROME- John Cabot University (JCU) held two lectures with private advocate Simon Davies founder of Privacy International - Sponsored by the Office of the President and the JCU department of Business Administration, the lectures focused on how privacy is affected by agencies such as the US National Security Agency (NSA), and technological innovation.

 Privacy International is a UK registered non for profit organization, which fights for the right to protect privacy around the world. In his first lecture Mr. Davies introduced his work and campaigns against ID cards in the UK. The Identity Cards Act was enforced by UK parliament where they proposed the release of a National ID Card for citizens, and the establishment of the National Identity Register (NIR).

 In 2005 Simon Davies conducted research with The London School of Economics on the type of information that the government was allowed to request from the citizens, and he found that the amount of information was not proportional to the privacy rights of the same citizens. The government was allowed to request up to 10 fingerprints, face scans, and the list of all the places where the citizen was resident in their lifetime. According to the Private International website three months after the study was published the percentage of supporters for the privacy laws decreased from 80 to 45 percent. Changes to protect privacy arrived in the 2010 elections where the majority of the parties put forward legislation that was against the act. The public opinion had changed, and the UK government was starting to feel the pressure – as a result the NIR was destructed and UK ID cards were also cancelled.

 In his second lecture Davies spoke of the NSA/Snowden case, and how privacy stems from the citizens’ relationship with technology. Mr. Davies, discussed how NSA was able to connect the way humans communicate. Who, why and where are not a secret anymore; nonetheless, he adds, “Although I have nothing to hide, does my information have to public anyways?” In 2014 there is not much left that is not public, and the “surveillance reached a higher level where the future legacy is compromised.”

 He suggested to the audience that they should avoid using smartphones, and instead use simpler phones. The issue is not only that there are agencies able to retrieve information, but that citizens are also given the platforms of where to easily share the information, such as Facebook. In the US, people spend a staggering 441 minutes a month on the mobile application version of Facebook, instead of using the web version. The sacrifice must start from the citizen, although at the same time Mr. Davies acknowledged that refraining from social networking and smartphones in not the easiest task.

 Finally Davies stated that “identity is a precious, important thing, and you do not want the government controlling it.” The increase in technological platforms, and governmental changes are just making privacy less intimate and as explained by Mr. Davies, stealing the ability for a person to choose with whom to share specific information, and if they want to share the information in the first place. Relationships are based on sharing experiences and yet due to the amount of exposure via privacy invasion and technological advances means these relationships are being negatively affected.

 “You should be interested because you are thinking people. People in this room are going to run this planet and change future landscapes. Think about the most influential and important people in history: they would not have wanted everyone to know details of where they’ve been and what they’ve done.”

 Sharing information is a part of life and compulsory for most of us but Davies states that we should do this with “common sense.”