Privacy Technology
In many ways the data trail you leave behind as you use the web allows companies and organisations to build up a picture of who you are & what you do. Often these companies know about your surfing habits, spending patterns, what books you like to read and much more. Records are kept of every search that has ever been made on popular search engines. Social networking and free email providers hold data that disclose who our friends and family are and what we have been saying to them. Now with the advent of location filtered web searches the places we search from as well as what we search for are logged.
The main privacy protections we enjoy are provided by the law. Whilst this is super important (and in some countries even this much is not provided) the protection is the promise to prosecute the culprit if privacy is invaded – i.e. punishment after the event rather than direct prevention.
At HW Communications we believe that more can be done and more needs to be done to protect our privacy in three key areas:
The main privacy protections we enjoy are provided by the law. Whilst this is super important (and in some countries even this much is not provided) the protection is the promise to prosecute the culprit if privacy is invaded – i.e. punishment after the event rather than direct prevention.
At HW Communications we believe that more can be done and more needs to be done to protect our privacy in three key areas:
1. Education - to inform people about what happens to their data and what measures they can take to protect themselves from invasion of privacy.
We hope, via projects like EnCoRe, to help raise cultural sensitity to the disclosure of personal information.
We hope, via projects like EnCoRe, to help raise cultural sensitity to the disclosure of personal information.
2. Corporate behavioural change. We need to encourage and facilitate businesses to employ measures to improve the security of data they hold and also to provide transparency to users about what data they hold.
At HWC we are committed to avoid any unnecessary storing of sensitive data. We do not track devices without the consent of device owners and users and when we do have consent we provide access to the data we gather.
At HWC we are committed to avoid any unnecessary storing of sensitive data. We do not track devices without the consent of device owners and users and when we do have consent we provide access to the data we gather.
3. Develop and encourage use of technology that safeguards against human error as well as criminality. We have taken steps to ensure security is built into the design of our technology.
We use virtual identities and sophisticated encryption, and will make use of our expertise to add extra layers of security to stored data towards eradicating the possibility of misuse (either deliberate or accidental).
We use virtual identities and sophisticated encryption, and will make use of our expertise to add extra layers of security to stored data towards eradicating the possibility of misuse (either deliberate or accidental).
HW Communications is one of the active organisations involved in EnCoRe. A government sponsored multi disciplinary project to prove the technology and case for individuals to consent to their data being captured and used and most importantly to be able to revoke that consent. The consortium includes technical, legal and business specialists and is maintaining a high profile.
Please contact us for more information.