CFP: Should privacy technologies be built in?

While most attendees of the Computers, Freedom and Privacy (CFP) conference in San Francisco this week agreed that more needs to be done to protect consumers' privacy against the onslaught of rapidly advancing technologies that track, store and share sensitive data, how that privacy should be guarded remained a subject of fiery discussion.

While some attendees took the "build-the-privacy-protecting-technologies-and-it-will come" position, others lobbied for legislative action, or a combination of privacy-enhancing technologies and law, arguing that large corporations would have little motivation to deploy the technologies otherwise.

"I don't think vendors are going to build in privacy protections if there is no incentive for profit," said Avi Rubin, principal researcher at AT&T Labs, who added that he would like to see a mix of technology and legislation that guards privacy.

However, relying too much on legislation to ensure privacy is also a sticky subject, according to Barry Steinhardt, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

"Technology is outpacing the law," Steinhardt said.

Still, many privacy advocates like Rubin are trying to strike a balance between providing the public with privacy-protecting technologies and passing legislation to support the use of those technologies.

New online privacy legislation introduced Thursday by U.S. Senator Fritz Hollings appeared to have struck the right note with privacy groups attending CFP, as many voiced support for the proposed bill. The legislation introduced by the South Carolina Democrat, called the Online Personal Privacy Act , basically states that online companies have to obtain clear "opt-in" consent to collect personal information from consumers, and "opt-out" consent for non-sensitive information.

Ari Schwartz, associate director of the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), said that his organization supports the proposed bill because it puts the privacy issue back on the table.

"We think this bill raises some good issues," said Schwartz.

But few think that legislation alone will solve the privacy issues generated by technologies such as Web-based single sign-on services, that collect and store consumer data, and biometric technologies, that monitor and read personal identifying information.

"New technologies threaten to create a surveillance society," said Steinhardt.

To avoid such a society, a handful of companies are not waiting for privacy legislation, but are diligently working on privacy-enhancing technologies that can be used immediately.

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