Vicky asked Matthew to give this year's keynote at Boussias' annual Data Privacy and Protection conference, due to be held in person in Greece but moved online as COVID-19 disrupted plans. His subject was the Future of Privacy, a topic he finds both intriguing, for the benefits it could bring, and worrying, as exponential technologies are commercialised with little regard for people's right to privacy and weaponised by dystopian rogue states as a means of suppression.
He explained that today's exponential technologies, from AI and machine vision to new imaging and sensing technologies, are combining to give companies an incredibly powerful and sophisticated 'surveillance apparatus'. How we feel about our right to privacy often depends on the purpose and intentions of those collecting the data.
"In both of these examples I'm stripping away your privacy, but my purpose and intentions influence how you feel about that privacy invasion."Matthew Griffin, Virtual, August 2020
His example made the point. If data from your wearable or a smartphone conversation predicts a heart attack and an ambulance is dispatched to save your life, you would probably be grateful. If the same data is used to adjust or cancel your health insurance before the attack, you would not. Both strip away your privacy, but the purpose changes how it feels. The same applies to mortgages, job applications, protecting a family or suppressing freedom.
Matthew showed how far online and offline privacy have already been eroded, often in surprising ways. As sensing systems become millions of times more sensitive and able to pull secrets directly out of people's heads, this is only the beginning. He closed by arguing that governments must understand the path we are on and put the right regulations and policies in place, because most policy makers are far behind and organisations everywhere will be watching.
