Some years ago I tried to find an activity tracker that would allow me unfiltered access to my own data. Had I better hardware skills, I might have tried to make one, because there doesn’t seem to be any such thing. Trackers, whether they are heart rate monitors, smart watches, or fitness necklaces, all seem to have one thing in common: They upload the data to a server somewhere, and only give you access to selected, filtered subsets of your data.
Many devices also charge you an ongoing subscription fee in order to be able to see your data, rendering the expensive device that you bought outright useless if you don’t keep paying the fees – which will, of course, be raised at every opportunity.
I wanted a device that stored my data on my own phone or laptop, not on someone else’s servers in the cloud. I wanted to be able to access the data easily and analyse it however I wanted. This, it seemed, was too much to ask. It was a stark reminder that the tech industry does not exist to serve us, it exists to monetise us.
Some years later I wore a halter monitor to record my heartbeats for 24 hours. When I returned to the doctor to have the monitor removed, I asked for the data. The doctor was bewildered (they usually are) and said that he didn’t even have the data. They put the device in a proprietory cradle, which sends the data off to the company that sold them the device, and the company sends them back a report. Not the data. Just a summary. Just what they choose to tell you. So not only did I not have access to my data, a company with whom I had no relationship, had signed no contract, had seen no privacy policy for, had all my data and complete license to do whatever the hell it wanted with it.
This, little did we know it, was the thin end of the wedge. It is shocking how complacent we are about the devices that collect – and, let’s be real, own – our data, without our informed consent. (What constitutes informed consent? That’s a whole other rant.)
Buying a new car? That car will send your data back to the parent company in perpetuity. Does that matter? Well, the data may include your address, your age, your phone number, the calls you make, the places you go, the way you drive, the music and other content you listen to, the videos your kids watch, even the conversations you have in the car. There is literally nothing stopping them from collecting all of that information – and more – and then selling it to the highest bidder.
Not buying a new car won’t save you, however. Your TV is probably collecting most of that data as well. Those of us who are too security conscious to have Alexa or Google Home listening out for us to say “Alexa!” or “Hey Google” almost certainly have a stack of other devices listening to us anyway. Even your appointments with your doctor may now be recorded – this time by an AI system designed to “empower doctors to deliver attentive, personalized patient care.” while monetising patient information.
Got an X-Ray recently? Turns out your X-Ray provider may well be selling your data.
There’s a kind of secular parable about frogs, that says if you put them in hot water they will jump right out, whereas if you put them in cool water and heat it gradually, they stay in until the water gets so hot that they die. We are in the process of being boiled, but it turns out that the frog story is a lie. Even frogs are smart enough to jump out of the water when it starts getting uncomfortably hot.
It’s time we jumped out.
It’s not easy, though, to opt out of all of this technology. If you want a new car you have no choice. Ditto a new TV. New fridges are internet connected. It’s spreading like a fungus. It will take serious privacy legislation. Laws to make it clear that we own our own data – especially health data – are essential. Laws to make sharing of that data illegal. Laws to put people ahead of profit.
But to make those laws happen, we need a much more data and technologically literate population, and a vastly more data and technologically literate government. That’s one of the reasons the Australian Data Science Education Institute charity exists – to build that data and technologically literate population through education – but it’s going to take time, and it’s going to take funding.
In the meantime, those of us who can feel how hot the water is getting need to make a lot more noise.