Is Privacy Dead?: The Future of Privacy in the Digital Age

By David Houle

"Is Privacy Dead? The Future of Privacy in the Digital Age"is a book about the loss of privacy in the digital age and what the future of privacy might be Futurist David Houle suggests that it is time for society to have a discussion about what it means to live in a world of decreasing privacy and what new moral and ethical issues might be. Thi

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Houle and Associates
• Release date: Nov 22, 2013
• ISBN: 9781479010110

David Houle

David Houle is a futurist, strategist and keynote speaker. Houle is consistently ranked as one of the top futurists and futurist keynote speakers on the major search engines. Houle won a Speaker of the Year award from Vistage International, the leading organization of CEOs in the world. He is often called the "CEOs' futurist" having spoken to or advised 2,000+ CEOs and business owners in the past four years.

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Introduction

As a futurist, I have delivered 500+ speeches and presentations in the last six years. On all six inhabited continents and in 12 countries, I have spoken about the future and how humanity has left the Information Age and entered the Shift Age. Probably 80% of these speeches were made in the United States. After the majority of my speeches, I try to have as extended a question-and-answer session as possible. It is these sessions that give me great insight into the concerns, worries and hopes that people have about the future. The questions about privacy, and how much it is being threatened by our ever more connected, social media, smartphone, and Internet world are some of the most consistent questions asked. What is interesting is that this privacy concern is much more prevalent in America than any other country.

All of these question and answer sessions over the past six years have been and continue to be great focus groups or market research opportunities to better understand what people’s concerns about the future are. As a result, I spend a lot of time researching, reflecting and then speaking and writing about the concepts, trends and largest contexts that will shape our collective future. As a futurist who thinks about the future and reflects on what was and what is moving forward into what will be, I therefore think I am uniquely positioned to look at what the future of privacy will be.

I have consistently answered questions about privacy with the same general responses:

1. The definition of privacy is mutable; it changes through time. The privacy that our parents and our grandparents had is no longer. Privacy has been greatly diminished.

2. There is no longer privacy as we know it due to data always being captured by companies and governments.

3. If you want privacy, then you must not participate in the digital world. That it is hypocritical to complain about the lack of privacy if you post information on social media, use the GPS function of your smart phone, surf the Internet, or increasingly, drive on the toll ways and in the cities of America. Don’t complain if you are constantly letting convenience and the cool factor of technology trump concerns about privacy.

So when Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the NSA and PRISM,¹ the news was of great interest to me. Though the details that we know are chilling, the general themes – that there has been blanket surveillance of citizens and companies and that our elected officials have been less than forthright about these activities – was not a real surprise.

What has been exciting to me is that now we have an open, energized conversation going on about privacy and surveillance. The unfolding of the story only enhances this discussion. The initial revelations led to some clearing of throats by members of Congress and heads of intelligence agencies. The ongoing rewording of press releases and recalibrating of spoken positions by our elected officials is stunning in its conceit and deceit.

The first revelations of course led certain members of Congress to attack Mr. Snowden as a traitor² – trying to deflect the conversation – and then to give us assurances that it isn’t really full surveillance³ with a relative free hand. When additional revelations of blanket surveillance were made, this process occurred again. Every time government officials try to minimize what is going on and what they have kept from Americans, new disclosures make them backtrack and reword their comments once again. We are now waiting for what else we will learn that will make our elected leaders again do the word and definition dance. It will continue.

This of course is great theater. What has been somewhat disturbing to me is how the American media is not really opening up a deeper discussion about what privacy we have and what these disclosures mean for a democracy that prides itself on freedom. The story quickly became about where Mr. Snowden would end up in political asylum, whether he is a hero or a traitor, and whether the need to defend us against the threat of global terrorism warrants the loss of our privacy. Mainstream media has stayed at the level of soap opera and has not provoked what is clearly needed – which is a full-scale, open, society-wide discussion about privacy in America, and the world, in the 21st century.

That is the conversation people have been having with me.