Manifestos cast new light on the question of personal data
Posted on Apr 15th by William in Creative outlets, Customer service, Faith & practice, IdealGov stuff, What needs doing?
A year after Godalming Friends adopted the “database state” as a corporate concern, the main party political manifestos published this week suggest the tide may have turned over control of personal data. On Monday we had:
We will explore how to give citizens direct access to the data held on them by public agencies, so that people can use and control their own personal data in their interaction with service providers.” Labour Party Manifesto, 12 April 2010
And then on Tuesday we had
“Wherever possible, we believe that personal data should be controlled by individual citizens themselves.” Conservative Party Manifesto, 13 April 2010
I feel emotionally drained. These potent sentences are the result of so much work by so many people in the US and over here, going back at least 11 years.
Does this really provide a basis of political commitment to start to get online relationships right at last? Or are they just words?
I hope and believe that they herald the huge task of starting to equip individuals with the tools to realise the value of their own data, to “give them their data back” and then as far as possible of going forward on a fully permissioned basis with the individual’s consent. This manageable technical step has vast cultural, legal and economic implications. It heralds online relationships in which personal data of individuals is no longer abused and taken for granted. It would allow the Internet (which Doc Searls memorably describes as “too young to drink”) to grow up into being as a platform for mature and mutually respectful interaction.
I hope that my own participation in this journey will be rightly guided. It’s based in two fast-growing new businesses: Mydex CIC, a social enterprise which develops tools to make this possible, and Ctrl-Shift Ltd which provides large organisations with research and advice about how to work most effectively with empowered customers. Let’s see how this plays out. But we’re all involved in this; it affects everyone. So if you’re interested too, do stay in touch.
