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GDPR: Humanizing cyberspace
Rules and regulations to protect personal data do not trigger many sympathies.
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Data protection illustration. (Shutterstock/File photo)
Rules and regulations to protect personal data do not trigger many sympathies.
The corporate world sees it as an unnecessary deterrent; as a limit to their growth — more to pay and less or slower to yield, innovate and expand. Governments would traditionally wish the rules should apply to every societal stakeholder but themselves. And citizenry by large too frequently behave benevolent, nearly careless whether their data is harvested or safeguarded at all.
However, such legislation is needed today more than ever before. The latest round of technological advancements was rapid, global and uneven. No wonder that in the aftermath of the so-called IT-revolutions, our world suffers from technological asymmetries: assertive big corporation and omnipresent mighty governments on one side and ordinary citizenry on the other.
Even in the most advanced democracies today, such as the European Union, personal autonomy is at huge risk. Everyday simple, almost trivial, choices such as what to read, which road to take, what to wear, eat, watch or listen are governed (or at least filtered) by algorithms that run deep under the surface of software and devices.
