collaborative consent
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Presentation from BILETA 2010TRANSCRIPT
COLLABORATIVE CONSENT
Harnessing the strengths of the Internet for consent in the online environment
Collaborative Consent Paul BernalBILETA 2010
The symbiosis in the Web
Data gatherers and data subjects in mutual dependency
• Businesses reliant on gathering and using personal data
• Individuals dependent on ‘free’ services built on this data gathering
Collaborative Consent Paul BernalBILETA 2010
Behavioural advertisingEpitomises these trends• Works by gathering and using
personal data• Tendency towards secrecy• ‘Sidestepping’ consent
Collaborative Consent Paul BernalBILETA 2010
Collaborative ConsentTwo key aspects• Treats consent not as a discrete,
one-off decision, but as a process
• Looks at consent as a two-way process – a dialogue
Collaborative Consent Paul BernalBILETA 2010
Phorm
An extreme level of behavioural targetting• Monitors ALL web-browsing• Works at the ISP level• Legally challenged in a number of ways
Collaborative Consent Paul BernalBILETA 2010
Phorm and Consent
Many of the problems of Phorm could have been addressed by consent• Interception of communications (RIPA)• Data Protection• Fraud , defamation, passing off,
trademark infringement• consent needed from the websites!
Collaborative Consent Paul BernalBILETA 2010
Phorm and Privacy
Phorm believed their ‘UID’ system meant that they were not covered by Data Protection
BUT: the public perception of privacy is different from the letter of the law, let alone the ‘arguable’ letter of the law
Collaborative Consent Paul BernalBILETA 2010
The Fall of Phorm
Phorm failed for many reasons• Attacks from rights groups• Secret trials!• Perceived as ‘anti-privacy’• Abandoned by business allies• Challenges from Europe• Investigations from the OFT, apComms
Collaborative Consent Paul BernalBILETA 2010
The Fall of Phorm
Another way to look at it• An imbalance in symbiosis• Phorm took, but didn’t give• Not the Google model• More like Facebook’s Beacon – which
suffered the same fate
Collaborative Consent Paul BernalBILETA 2010
Lessons from Phorm
1 Keeping the balance is crucial2 You must keep the public on your
side• People don’t like being taken
advantage of• That means that, one way or another,
you need consent• That consent must be meaningful, and
understood, not just strictly legal
Collaborative Consent Paul BernalBILETA 2010
‘Real’ vs ‘Legal’ consent
Consent is not just a legal issue…
…it is an issue of autonomy
Collaborative Consent Paul BernalBILETA 2010
Consent on the internetCurrently mostly superficial• Unread terms and conditions• Scrolled-through, unread ‘clickwrap’• Browsed-through, unnoticed ‘browse-
wrap’• ‘One off’ consent – gained when you
first sign up• ‘Stretched’ consent from service to
service
Collaborative Consent Paul BernalBILETA 2010
When might consent not be required?
• When it’s ‘reasonable’ to assume that consent would be granted – but what is ‘reasonable’?
• Obligations – legal or international• Where there is an overwhelming
societal need or benefit• Is there a ‘need’ for a profitable
internet business sector?
Collaborative Consent Paul BernalBILETA 2010
Opt-in or Opt-out?
• Opt-out only when consent can generally be assumed
• Where there is any doubt, the rights of the individual should get the benefit of that doubt
• Behavioural trackers/advertisers generally use ‘opt-out’…..
Collaborative Consent Paul BernalBILETA 2010
Informed consent
• Does it just mean that information has to be given, or
• Does it mean that an ‘informed decision’ needs to be enabled?
• Lessons from medical law – Harvey Teff’s ‘collaborative autonomy’.
Collaborative Consent Paul BernalBILETA 2010
‘Collaborative consent’
• The internet lends itself to communication and collaboration• The internet is a communications
medium• The internet supplies information• The internet works continuously in
real time• Consent processes should take
advantage of all of this
Collaborative Consent Paul BernalBILETA 2010
‘Collaborative consent’
• Contracts, T&C, EULAs in plain language
• Then, turn consent into a communicative collaboration• Data gatherers provide information• Alerts when data is gathered• Alerts when things change• All in real time, providing options to
change, revoke, pause, control
Collaborative Consent Paul BernalBILETA 2010
When things are important
They can be pointed out!
Collaborative Consent Paul BernalBILETA 2010
‘Collaborative consent’
• Some of this is happening• Google dashboard• Google Ads Preferences
• Current systems are hard to find, very much ‘opt-out’
Collaborative Consent Paul BernalBILETA 2010
Consent through rights
The features of collaborative consent should be seen as rights:• Rights to be informed• Rights to be consulted• Rights to withdraw or revoke
consent• Rights to choose
Collaborative Consent Paul BernalBILETA 2010
The power of consent
When a provider needs to get consent, they need to convince a user that they will benefit…
….so they need to ensure that there is a benefit to convince the user of, and will build business models accordingly
Collaborative Consent Paul BernalBILETA 2010
A future for behavioural tracking?• As a method of ‘self profiling’?• For programming ‘intelligent agents’?
Perhaps no future – but if there is a future, it should be on the customers’ terms.
Collaborative Consent Paul BernalBILETA 2010
Consent in the future
• A difficult issue to grapple with – but one that must be engaged.
• Superficial consent is scarcely better than no consent at all
• Making consent a collaborative process could be a useful first step
Paul Bernal – [email protected]