Did you know that your own car might be “spying” on you?
According to a recently released report by The Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit organization that advocates for secure online experiences, the apps, sensors, cameras, and other high-tech bells and whistles built into many new cars today collect and share personal data such as where we go, how fast we drive, what radio stations we listen to, the status of our health, and even our genetic makeup.
This enlightening revelation – the result of The Mozilla Foundation’s survey of 25 car manufacturers – underscores the downside of a modern-day society that’s fueled by data but can fall short on data privacy standards and enforcement.
A Very Real Concern for Individuals and Companies Alike
Privacy concerns are by no means a new trend, but they’re growing. The threat that today’s highly-connected infrastructure poses to personal digital privacy is very significant to citizens and businesses around the globe.
According to Surfshark’s User Attitudes Towards Privacy Survey 2022, 90% of the internet users worldwide who were surveyed agreed that online privacy is important to them – in fact, nearly half of the adults across twelve countries who participated in Cisco’s 2021 Consumer Privacy Survey claimed to have terminated relationships with companies over their inadequate digital data privacy policies.
Similar concerns over the state of data privacy were confirmed by McKinsey Digital in their recently-published McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2023. According to the report, the trend of “trust architectures and digital identity” (which focuses on building and maintaining the trust and integrity of those who use an organization’s data and digital-enabled products and services) grew the most out of the fourteen trends they tracked over the past year as the issues of security, privacy, and resilience have taken center stage.
The Need to Close the Skills Gap
New regulations and parameters on data sharing worldwide are requiring greater levels of privacy engineering in the product design process. Examples include Europe’s 2022 “NIS2 Directive” and “2023 Data Governance Act” and recently-strengthened data privacy laws enacted in states throughout the U.S. At the same time, shifting societal attitudes have led consumers and business customers alike to increasingly expect products and services to incorporate appropriate levels of security, technology resilience, and other digital-trust properties as part of their value proposition.
As a result of these developments, global equity investment in the field of trust architectures and digital identity grew to US$47 billion in 2022 – nearly five times its level in 2018. Furthermore, subsequent demand for skilled talent within the field has risen steadily, with job postings growing by over 16% between 2021 and 2022.
While the demand for stronger data privacy features and expertise is on the rise, a deficit of talent in this specialty persists in 2023. This talent gap is especially prevalent in the areas of risk analysis, regulatory compliance, computer security, cryptography, and identity management, where the McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2023 revealed that there are only one to four qualified applicants per ten job postings.
Products and services that don’t adequately protect customer data privacy can lead to catastrophic fallouts such as data breaches that can significantly impact an organization’s financials as well as its brand and reputation. The organization could also incur harsh financial penalties for violating data privacy regulations. Given these concerns, product development teams are increasingly acknowledging the need to address security and technology risks earlier in the development and delivery life cycle.
Make Data Privacy Your Business
As privacy grows in importance, the need for technical professionals to possess strong knowledge in the area also grows.
Protecting Privacy in the Digital Age, brought to you by IEEE Educational Activities in collaboration with IEEE Digital Privacy, is a four-course program that provides a framework on how to operationalize privacy in an organizational context, how to make it usable for end users, and how to address emerging technical challenges to protecting digital privacy. Connect with an IEEE Content Specialist today to learn how to get access to this program for your organization. Interested in access for yourself? Visit the IEEE Learning Network (ILN).
Ethical transparency is critical to an organization’s success and it must be included in digital environments. Successful digital environments require rigorous ethical standards that incorporate honesty, impartiality, protection, security, and privacy.
AI Standards: Roadmap for Ethical and Responsible Digital Environments provides instructions for a comprehensive approach to creating ethical and responsible digital ecosystems. Contact an IEEE Content Specialist to learn more about how this program can benefit your organization. Interested in getting access for yourself? Visit the IEEE Learning Network (ILN) today!
Resources:
Caltrider, Jen, Rykov, Misha, and MacDonald, Zoë. (6 September 2023). “It’s Official: Cars Are the Worst Product Category We Have Ever Reviewed for Privacy.” The Mozilla Foundation.
Howarth, Josh. (21 February 2023). “23+ Alarming Data Privacy Statistics For 2023.” Exploding Topics.
Chui, Michael, Issler, Mena, Roberts, Roger, and Yee, Lareina. (20 July 2023). “McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2023.” McKinsey Digital.
Utah and Connecticut recently joined a growing number of U.S. states – including California, Colorado, and Virginia — passing data privacy laws. These regulations give citizens greater control over their data and empower them to hold organizations that violate the rules accountable. A number of federal governments, including the European Union, China, Brazil, have also passed similar laws.
While the U.S. does not currently have a federal data privacy law, federal regulators are still taking action. The U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission recently settled a suit against Twitter over allegations that it misled people over how their phone numbers and email addresses would be used, slapping the social media company with a $150 million USD fine.
Meanwhile, a recent ruling in a $650 million USD class action lawsuit against Facebook found it violated the Illinois’ 2008 biometric privacy law over its handling of facial recognition data. As a result, the social media giant must pay over 1.4 million residents up to $397 USD.
These legal actions are only the beginning. According to CPO Magazine, legislators in at least 27 states in the U.S. have introduced data privacy bills in the last several months.
“By 2024, it’s likely that almost every state will have its own version passed into law,” writes Bill Tolson, Vice President of Global Compliance & eDiscovery at Archive360, in CPO Magazine. “This is getting little to no attention in the business world, and yet it requires serious effort to ensure compliance. Businesses getting prepared now are barely ahead of the curve; those that put it off till the laws hit the market will have to scramble to keep up.”
Data Privacy Professionals Are In High Demand
Data privacy professionals are quickly becoming some of the most in-demand technical professionals in the world today. A recent report from the recruitment company TRU Staffing Partners found a 30% increase in open data privacy jobs, due to a combination of the rise in remote work and the recent proliferation of data privacy laws. In addition to there not being enough data privacy professionals, the report also found a shortage of professionals with the right qualifications. According to CPO Magazine, some key findings from the report include:
- Qualified data privacy professionals have a competitive advantage in the current job market. Whereas it generally took up to six weeks for someone with the right qualifications to get hired after submitting their resume in 2019, it took roughly one week on average in 2021.
- Data privacy professionals typically have a minimum of two job offers at a time. When they are actively looking for a job, this increases to three.
- Privacy professionals have seen a 22% growth in pay (earning about $20,000 – $30,000 USD more in general annually for the same positions). Similar increases are anticipated by 2023.
- About 75% of these positions are in corporations, 20% are in consulting and software companies, and 5% are in the legal industry.
As more governments pass regulations and organizations seek to fill their knowledge gap, now is the perfect time for technical professionals to learn the ins-and-outs of data privacy.
Growing Your Data Privacy Skills
As privacy grows in importance, the need for technical professionals to possess strong knowledge in the area also grows.
Protecting Privacy in the Digital Age, brought to you by IEEE Educational Activities in collaboration with IEEE Digital Privacy, is a four-course program that provides a framework on how to operationalize privacy in an organizational context, how to make it usable for end users, and how to address emerging technical challenges to protecting digital privacy. Connect with an IEEE Content Specialist today to learn how to get access to this program for your organization. Interested in access for yourself? Visit the IEEE Learning Network (ILN).
Ethical transparency is critical to an organization’s success and it must be included in digital environments. Successful digital environments require rigorous ethical standards that incorporate honesty, impartiality, protection, security, and privacy.
AI Standards: Roadmap for Ethical and Responsible Digital Environments provides instructions for a comprehensive approach to creating ethical and responsible digital ecosystems. Contact an IEEE Content Specialist to learn more about how this program can benefit your organization. Interested in getting access for yourself? Visit the IEEE Learning Network (ILN) today!
Resources
Bensinger, Greg. (30 May 2022). How Illinois Is Winning in the Fight Against Big Tech. New York Times.
Casale, Elizabeth; Collum, Christopher; Shreve, James; Sosnicki, Luke. (27 May 2022). Utah and Connecticut enact comprehensive data privacy laws. thompsoncoburn.com.
Gordon, Marcy. (25 May 2022). Twitter to pay $150M penalty over privacy of users’ data. ABC News.
Sauer, Megan. (25 May 2022). Some Facebook users are receiving $397 checks over data privacy violations—and these tech companies could be next. CNBC.
Tolson, Bill. (20 May 2022). Data Privacy Conundrum: When Different States Play by Different Rules. CPO Magazine.
Ikeda, Scott. (9 May 2022). Data Privacy Jobs Report Shows Demand for Privacy Pros at Record High Thanks to Complex Regulatory Requirements, Mass Migration to Cloud Services. CPO Magazine.