Why Is It Hard to Protect Privacy?

It is a challenge that protects data privacy in the digital world, imports social and legal complexity as technology. The roots of this difficulty in the last article of ACM Communique have been revealed, and why there is not only a technical issue to defend privacy rights.

The main factors that strengthen privacy are:

• Technical design deficiencies: The software and systems are not developed by considering privacy from the beginning, then the security solutions added from the moment are ineffective.

• Data collection culture: Business models of companies are mainly based on the collection and analysis of personal data and this is not easy to change economic incentive.

• User awareness: People often accept digital services without fully understanding what data they share, what purpose they are used.

• Legal spaces: Different privacy regulations and applications in the global plane power to create a single standard.

The article states that the solution of the privacy problem is not limited only to encryption algorithms or firewalls, the corporate responsibility, the regulatory structure and user training are equally important. While technical solutions are required, it seems impossible to provide real progress without a change of culture across the system.