DIGITAL OVERREACH: CORPORATE SURVEILLANCE AND THE QUEST FOR DIGITAL PRIVACY

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             To satisfy the high demand for behavioral surplus, internet companies have built algorithms that manipulate our digital interactions thereby feeding their digital tools with data about our moods, interests and aversions to send us behavioral triggers that cause us to keep feeding their information supply chains.


As computer technology advanced and computerized devices and systems were built, human interactions with and between each other changed, in substance and form, and so did the stage from which these interactions take place.

The advancement in computer hardware and software started a new manner of communication in which the sharing and storage of information is done over and through mediums developed and controlled by a minority to whom our rights to privacy and security are entrusted.

Human interactions with digital devices and platforms has, over time, created a vast amount of digital footprint- traceable activities, actions and communication evinced on the internet and, or digital devices.

 As time went by and a lot of data from internet use became so voluminous, two tech behemoths- Google and Facebook- pioneered a mechanism to commoditize the data, starting a corporate digital practice that came to be known as corporate surveillance.

 Google launched AdWords to collect personal data, create a digital profile for each internet user and use that profile to target more accurately personalized advertisements.

 Facebook launched its own version of AdWords- Beacon. Facebook Beacon was central to Facebook’s collection of personal data from external websites with the aim of targeting personalized advertisements.

Both AdWords and Beacon turned out to be intelligent corporate bets, for they generated billions of dollars for their companies making their founders multibillionaires in the shortest span of time.

While Facebook and Google promised better experiences tailored to individual users, their reach would prove entirely intended to intrude into people’s lives by collecting personal data for commercial benefits.

Like Professor Zuboff would say, Surveillance Capitalism’s main interest is expanding new flows of behavioral surplus. To achieve this, therefore, every digital platform and device becomes a supply chain and is designed to maximize the supply potential.

 To satisfy the high demand for behavioral surplus, internet companies have built algorithms that manipulate our digital interactions thereby feeding their digital tools with data about our moods, interests and aversions to send us behavioral triggers that cause us to keep feeding their information supply chains.

Recently, many governments have woken up to provide legal protection against corporate surveillance. Just a month ago, the government of Rwanda promulgated a Law on the Protection of Personal Data and Privacy.

 Like the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation and China’s Personal Information Protection Law, Rwanda’s Law on the Protection of Personal Data and Privacy aims at the protection of personal data and privacy.

 In Rwanda, a number of corporate practices exploit personal data for corporate gains and that casts doubt on the practical validity of the country’s new law- Law on Personal Data Protection and Privacy.

Mobile Network Operators, through their Bulk SMS business, grant access to personally identifiable information for profit. This business practice deprives data subjects of an opportunity to give consent on the use of their personal data which, by and in itself, is a violation of one of the core principles of privacy.

How, for instance, can I go about having an MTN Rwanda SIM Card without disclosing my personally identifiable information to the mobile network operator?

After having disclosed this information, consciously, how do I decide who gets access to it? 

How should an internet user circumvent cookies on websites that offer only an option to accept cookies without denying themselves an opportunity to access the websites?

On this very matter only a few people are even concerned that their personal data is being shared without their consent because, given two options; sharing the information to have the SIM Card and, not-sharing the information and subsequently not being able to have the Sim card, many would choose sharing the information so they can have the SIM Cards. It can also be argued, though with a bit of restraint, that informed consent is a prerogative of the digitally savvy. Without assuming that entities which want to collect personal data from people educate them on its intended uses, its handling and possible consequences associated with disclosing such data, the opportunity to decide on disclosure of personal data, or elements thereof, is limited to individuals with sufficient understanding of the outcomes of the disclosures and protections against exploitation of the data.

Will Rwanda’s Law on Protection of Personal Data and Privacy put an end to this business practice?

 Internet companies’ business models are dependent upon monetizing profiles built from the users’ patterns of interaction with the internet. Rwanda’s Law on Personal Data Protection and Privacy lacks jurisdiction to compel internet companies to adjust their modus operandi to allow for users, who this Law aims to protect, to have more favorable terms of use of the digital platforms instead of confining them to either accepting the terms of use to access the platforms or declining to the terms and, as a result, failing to have access to the platforms.

In the quest for protection of personal data and privacy, it is essential to note that ‘the practical validity of personal data protection and privacy laws can be challenged by corporate strategies designed to deny data subjects room for informed consent, if any, on the disclosure of their personally identifiable information to various recipients.”

Bottom line: with our personal data as a highly coveted commercial commodity, the pursuit of digital privacy poses an existential threat to many internet businesses to whom personal data is the lifeblood of financial sustainability. That said, digital privacy can be achieved only if these companies design revenue generating mechanisms devoid of exploiting personal data. Unfortunately; this is not what data protection and privacy laws aim to achieve.


By Steven Caleb Katurebe

e-mail: stevencaleb680@gmail.com


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