In several of the Liberty Privacy Summits, "ownership of personal data" has often appeared in the top layer of a stack of discussion topics. That stack is something we've taken to calling "The Ladder"; at the top are those second-order concepts like privacy, trust, ownership and so on, which prompt the most interesting discussions. The problem we've found is that if you start straight in with the second-order concepts, it's not long before the discussion is de-railed by differences over what the various participants understand about the rungs which lead up to it.
For instance, if the participants don't share a common vocabulary and conceptual framework, it's easy for the discussion to collapse amid bickering over terms, or mutual misunderstanding over what counts as 'identity data' and so on.
When it comes to "ownership", I have found that people are coming to describe "identity" less as 'a collection of facts or data about you, which you can therefore control or own', and more as a set of relationships between you and one or more other parties.
Just as I don't think we would ever say that someone "owns" a relationship with someone else, I think it may be unhelpful to try and say that someone can "own" their identity.
Certainly, there are many instances where one party exercises much more control over the identity relationship than the other, but that's a much more graduated question of context, negotiability and balance, rather than the more binary one of 'ownership'.
Neither does the concept of 'ownership' map particularly well onto something which you can give away to multiple other people and still have.
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Well, Robin, I think context is definitely a key point in the identity arena. In terms of ownership, you have a valid point.
Even a simple change of phone number. I’ve lived in the same place for 19 years. My home phone number has been the same for 19 years. My work phone number has changed countless times, even when my place of employment remained the same. It seems like every time I go to my doctor, they have a wrong phone number for me at work.
Wouldn’t it be nice if I could “own” (not notification, which I do own, but correction) of my work phone number?
I’m dreaming.
Unhelpful to say someone owns their identity? Yes, Robin, an ugly truth. Helpful to say someone manages their identity? That’s constructive.
Posted by Carolyn on May 24, 2008 at 06:41 AM GMT+00:00 #