Diversifying Privacy

The Apple AirTag debacle shows that there is a need to diversify privacy to protect people and brands. Diversifying privacy means more than diversifying product development and privacy teams. It means looking outside the compliance bubble and centring marginal voices, including those that challenge the status quo. 

Abigail Dubiniecki talks to Stewart Dresner and Tom Cooper and explains what went wrong with the Apple AirTag. Apple is usually regarded as the company at the privacy friendly end of the spectrum.  The latest consumer tech products are promoted as offering convenience. But developers ignore, understate or underestimate the possibility for harm. Harms to individual users as well as communities.

Some products and services are intended to vacuum up masses of data to monetise it. But even if a company rejects the outright monetisation of data as its main purpose, and instead is trying to create a product with privacy protections, some unforeseen problems can occur.

Apple and other companies can learn lessons from the AirTag story to avoid damage to their reputation.

This podcast is based on Abigail's article in PL&B International Report April 2022.Resource referred to in the podcast: Just Tech

 Abigail Dubiniecki is a privacy lawyer and consultant based in Canada who helps clients in the UK and Canada implement GDPR and other privacy and data protection laws. She specialized in operationalizing Privacy by Design and is a privtech and  emerging tech enthusiast.