CLAIRE BARRACLOUGH

Is It Possible To Breach Privacy When There Is No Human In The Loop

Privacy is a word which is frequently bounded around without proper consideration of what it actually means, or what the user intends it to mean. It is one of those words that can mean different things to different people. We will all know someone who happily ticks all boxes required to allow them to use a given mobile phone app, granting countless unknown third parties access to not just their activity on their app, but in some cases other data stored on their smartphone, such as location data, contacts, or access to the microphone. We will also all know someone who reads every privacy policy they come across with a fine toothed comb and may forego use of the given service due to outrage at the invasion of their privacy contained in the terms; how many of your Facebook friends have disappeared from the platform in recent years?