<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<div class="content__header tonal__header">
<div class="u-cf">
<h1 class="content__headline
content__headline--no-margin-bottom">
A radical proposal to keep your personal data safe
</h1>
<span class="content__headline content__headline--byline"><span
itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"
itemprop="author">
</span></span>
</div>
</div>
<div class="tonal__standfirst u-cf">
<div class="content__standfirst" data-link-name="standfirst"
data-component="standfirst">
The surveillance imposed on us today is worse than in the Soviet
Union. We need laws to stop this data being collected in the
first place
<br>
<br>
<span class="bullet">•</span> Richard Stallman is president of
the Free Software Foundation
</div>
</div>
<div class="content__meta-container js-content-meta js-football-meta
u-cf content__meta-container--tonal-header ">
<div class="meta__contact-wrap">
<p class="content__dateline">
<time itemprop="datePublished"
datetime="2018-04-03T12:05:00+0100"
data-timestamp="1522753500000" class="content__dateline-wpd
js-wpd content__dateline-wpd--modified">
Tue 3 Apr 2018 <span class="content__dateline-time">12.05 BST</span>
</time>
<time datetime="2018-04-03T12:00:14+0100"
data-timestamp="1522753214000" class="content__dateline-lm
js-lm u-h">
First published on Tue 3 Apr 2018 <span
class="content__dateline-time">12.00 BST</span>
</time>
</p>
<br>
</div>
</div>
<div class="content__article-body from-content-api js-article__body"
itemprop="articleBody" data-test-id="article-review-body">
<p><span class="drop-cap"><span class="drop-cap__inner">J</span></span>ournalists
have been asking me whether the revulsion against the abuse of <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/mar/31/big-data-lie-exposed-simply-blaming-facebook-wont-fix-reclaim-private-information"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">Facebook
data</a> could be a turning point for the campaign to recover
privacy. That could happen, if the public makes its campaign
broader and deeper.</p>
<p>Broader, meaning extending to all surveillance systems, not
just <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/facebook"
data-link-name="auto-linked-tag"
data-component="auto-linked-tag" class="u-underline">Facebook</a>.
Deeper, meaning to advance from regulating the use of data to
regulating the accumulation of data. Because surveillance is so
pervasive, restoring privacy is necessarily a big change, and
requires powerful measures.</p>
<p>The surveillance imposed on us today far exceeds that of the
Soviet Union. For freedom and democracy’s sake, we need to
eliminate most of it. There are so many ways to use data to hurt
people that the only safe database is the one that was never
collected. Thus, instead of the EU’s approach of mainly
regulating how personal data may be used (in its <a
href="https://www.eugdpr.org/" data-link-name="in body link"
class="u-underline">General Data Protection Regulation</a> or
GDPR), I propose a law to stop systems from collecting personal
data.</p>
<p>The robust way to do that, the way that can’t be set aside at
the whim of a government, is to require systems to be built so
as not to collect data about a person. The basic principle is
that a system must be designed not to collect certain data, if
its basic function can be carried out without that data.</p>
<p>Data about who travels where is particularly sensitive, because
it is an ideal basis for repressing any chosen target. We can
take the London trains and buses as a case for study.</p>
<p>The Transport for London digital payment card system centrally
records the trips any given Oyster or bank card has paid for.
When a passenger feeds the card digitally, the system associates
the card with the passenger’s identity. This adds up to complete
surveillance.</p>
<p>I expect the transport system can justify this practice under
the GDPR’s rules. My proposal, by contrast, would require the
system to stop tracking who goes where. The card’s basic
function is to pay for transport. That can be done without
centralising that data, so the transport system would have to
stop doing so. When it accepts digital payments, it should do so
through an anonymous payment system.</p>
<p>Frills on the system, such as the feature of letting a
passenger review the list of past journeys, are not part of the
basic function, so they can’t justify incorporating any
additional surveillance.</p>
<p>These additional services could be offered separately to users
who request them. Even better, users could use their own
personal systems to privately track their own journeys.</p>
<p>Black cabs demonstrate that a system for hiring cars with
drivers does not need to identify passengers. Therefore such
systems should not be <em>allowed </em>to identify passengers;
they should be required to accept privacy-respecting cash from
passengers without ever trying to identify them.</p>
<p>However, convenient digital payment systems can also protect
passengers’ anonymity and privacy. We have already developed
one: <a href="https://taler.net/en/index.html"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">GNU Taler</a>.
It is designed to be anonymous for the payer, but payees are
always identified. We designed it that way so as not to
facilitate tax dodging. All digital payment systems should be
required to defend anonymity using this or a similar method.</p>
<p>What about security? Such systems in areas where the public are
admitted must be designed so they cannot track people. Video
cameras should make a local recording that can be checked for
the next few weeks if a crime occurs, but should not allow
remote viewing without physical collection of the recording.
Biometric systems should be designed so they only recognise
people on a court-ordered list of suspects, to respect the
privacy of the rest of us. An unjust state is more dangerous
than terrorism, and too much security encourages an unjust
state.</p>
<p>The EU’s GDPR regulations are well-meaning, but do not go very
far. It will not deliver much privacy, because its rules are too
lax. They permit collecting any data if it is somehow useful to
the system, and it is easy to come up with a way to make any
particular data useful for something.</p>
<p>The GDPR makes much of requiring users (in some cases) to give
consent for the collection of their data, but that doesn’t do
much good. System designers have become expert at manufacturing
consent (to repurpose Noam Chomsky’s phrase). Most users consent
to a site’s terms without reading them; a company that <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/sep/29/londoners-wi-fi-security-herod-clause"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">required</a>
users to trade their first-born child got consent from plenty of
users. Then again, when a system is crucial for modern life,
like buses and trains, users ignore the terms because refusal of
consent is too painful to consider.</p>
<p>To restore privacy, we must stop surveillance before it even
asks for consent.</p>
<p>Finally, don’t forget the software in your own computer. If it
is the non-free software of Apple, Google or Microsoft, it <a
href="https://gnu.org/malware/" data-link-name="in body link"
class="u-underline">spies on you regularly</a>. That’s because
it is controlled by a company that won’t hesitate to spy on you.
Companies tend to lose their scruples when that is profitable.
By contrast, free (libre) software is <a
href="https://gnu.org/philosophy/free-software-even-more-important.html"
data-link-name="in body link" class="u-underline">controlled
by its users</a>. That user community keeps the software
honest.</p>
<p><span class="bullet">•</span> Richard Stallman is president of
the Free <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/software"
data-link-name="auto-linked-tag"
data-component="auto-linked-tag" class="u-underline">Software</a>
Foundation, which launched the development of a free/libre
operating system GNU</p>
<p><em>Copyright 2018 Richard Stallman. Released under Creative
Commons NoDerivatives License 4.0</em></p>
<p><em>-----------------------------------<br>
</em></p>
</div>
Artigo original:<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/03/facebook-abusing-data-law-privacy-big-tech-surveillance?CMP=share_btn_link">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/apr/03/facebook-abusing-data-law-privacy-big-tech-surveillance?CMP=share_btn_link</a>
</body>
</html>