In this article, we look at privacy, data, and corporate power with insights from Professor Ari Waldman, author of the book 'Industry Unbound' about the challenges of data privacy and corporate power of technology companies.

1. INDUSTRY UNBOUND: THE INSIDE
STORY OF PRIVACY, DATA AND
CORPORATE POWER

2. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
INDUSTRY UNBOUND: THE INSIDE STORY OF
PRIVACY, DATA AND CORPORATE POWER
In this article, we look at privacy, data, and corporate power with
insights from Professor Ari Waldman, author of the book 'Industry
Unbound' about the challenges of data privacy and corporate power of
technology companies.

3. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
The internet and the “datafication” of society have brought about a quantum
leap in our ability to communicate and share information. This has led to
some big advances in society but also a number of significant new challenges.
Among the most pressing is the threat we are facing to personal privacy.
Just this month, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified in front of
the US Senate that the company has been "operating in the shadows." This
includes downplaying evidence that it is harmful to the mental health of
young people and that its algorithmic methods of surfacing content can stoke
division and hatred.

4. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Facebook’s algorithms – according to the criticism – rank content according to how widely
it is shared and how frequently it is commented on. This often leads to controversial or
inflammatory ideas receiving more exposure than they deserve, on merit alone. Everyone
loves a bit of online drama after all – however, due to the scale, Facebook operates at,
things get a bit more complicated. Suggestions have been made that the way content is
surfaced affected violence experienced by Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar. It’s even been
claimed that Facebook knew that this happened and attempted to keep evidence of it from
coming to light.
While the implications of this are currently being unwound in the US Senate, a new book
claims to shed light on the processes and machinations that have made this possible –
leaving us in a situation where ultra-powerful tech companies hold a degree of control over
society and private lives that, as citizens of democratic countries, we never chose to give
them.

5. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Industry Unbound: The Inside Story of Privacy, Data and Corporate Power, by Professor
Ari Waldman, makes the argument that society’s attempts to regulate corporations that
control our data and shape global narratives are failing – and the consequences can be
extreme.
The crux of this argument is that structures that have been built up to regulate privacy
and control what companies can do with our data have largely been architected by
companies themselves. This means that in practical terms today, the principles we take
for granted – such as transparency, the right to know what data companies collect from
us, and the role of privacy professionals – primarily serve the interests of big business
and corporations, rather than the public that they ostensibly exist to protect.

6. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Rather than being recent constructs introduced through legislation such as the European
GDPR, or California’s CCPA, Waldman argues, the fundamental rights stem from earlier
principles that were devised as far back as the 1970s, such as the Fair Information Practice
Principles. At this time, privacy issues relating to digital data were not high on the agenda of
civil rights watchdogs. Corporations, however, with their vast lobbying powers, were very
much aware of its power.
“They list pretty much all the same individual rights,” Waldman says. “There are compliance
regulations that are decades old, the EU had privacy directives since the nineties, and the [US]
FTC has been requiring compliance … since the early noughts. So we’ve been doing this for a
really long time, but instead of these requirements coming from policymakers who have the
interests of consumers at heart, privacy law has percolated up from the bottom.”

7. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
This has led to what he refers to as a “path dependency” – an expected way of doing
things that no one in a position to alter really has any motivation to change for the
better.
To write his book, Waldman interviewed over one hundred people involved with privacy
within corporate organizations. Many of them would only speak on condition of
anonymity, and some refused to make any comment at all – most notably
representatives of Facebook. Google did agree in principle to take part in his research,
but only on the condition that they were given a chance to sign off on his work before
publication. Understandably, Waldman was not willing to agree to this, feeling it violated
the principle of independent research.

8. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
At many of the companies where he did get access, strict NDAs forbid him from naming the
organizations or the people he spoke to. But he told me that his findings backed up his initial
hypothesis that the systems and structures businesses have built up around privacy mean that
regulations are largely ineffective at protecting us from intrusion.
As a professor of law, he engaged with the in-house counsel at mid-sized tech companies and
identified one incident in particular that highlighted this finding.
The company, he tells me, was confident that its policies gave customers the protection of retaining
control of their content they shared on its service. However, during litigation, its lead counsel had
made an argument that hinged on the fact that a customer had given up some of their right to
privacy by posting their private information. When Waldman pointed out the apparent hypocrisy,
the lead counsel “stormed out of the room, saying, 'this is a witch hunt.'"

9. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
“One of their attorneys said, 'that's just zealous advocacy for our clients, which all lawyers are
supposed to have. So even though you have someone acting like a petulant child, even
though he was a 65-year-old man, and you had the rest of the team saying that they lie about
their perspective on protecting our privacy interest under the guide of being an aggressive
advocate for their employer.”
So, what needs to be done to fix this situation? My belief is that technologies like AI – largely
fueled by personal data – have huge potential to transform society and human lives for the
better. However, for that to happen, trust is absolutely critical. Consumers have to trust that
businesses will be honest and up-front about what data they collect and what is done with it
and trust that they have the power – enforced by legislation when necessary – to take back
control of their data whenever they feel that they want to.

10. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Waldman suggests that one possible path is to give data privacy professionals some kind of
fiduciary responsibility. This would mean that, in the same way as is true of doctors and
lawyers, they would have a codified responsibility towards the “greater good” – obligations to
put the interests of individuals at the heart of their structures and processes.
However, he also notes that there’s a danger that this would just lead to more defensive
corporate compliance, conducted mainly to act as a smokescreen that further protects the
interests of corporations.
“So, a lot of these changes or reforms that are on the margins of these [existing] systems, I’m
not sure how they’re going to work,” he says.

11. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
“I’m still not exactly sure that I’ve got it worked out … but I think privacy laws shouldn’t be
structured as systems that exist to allow companies to innovate within limits … I think privacy
laws need to be structured as an overt and obvious counterweight to corporate power. That
has to be our goal – we have to see it as our job not just to pick at the margins but to
undermine a business model that’s based on the commodification of human experience. But
how we do that is really hard.”
Fundamentally he is calling for a revolutionary – as opposed to simply evolutionary – rethink
of basic principles of privacy in the digital age. In fact, he namedrops Andre Gorz, the
Austrian-French Marxist philosopher who advocated “non-reforming reforms” – reforms
designed to shift power away from an ineffective or intrinsically corrupt system, rather than
continuing to legitimize those systems through further regulation.

12. © 2021 Bernard Marr, Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
It's interesting food for thought, and many of the anecdotes and observations
throughout his book back up Waldman's argument that the current system is
fundamentally flawed beyond hope of repair. It's perfectly feasible that root-
and-branch reform, along with a fundamental rethink of what constitutes
privacy in the digital age, is essential if technology is going to deliver its
promise of making the world a better place for everyone.

13. © 2021 Bernard Marr , Bernard Marr & Co. All rights reserved
Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker,
futurist, and a strategic business & technology advisor to governments and
companies. He helps organisations improve their business performance, use data
more intelligently, and understand the implications of new technologies such as
artificial intelligence, big data, blockchains, and the Internet of Things.
LinkedIn has ranked Bernard as one of the world’s top 5 business influencers. He is
a frequent contributor to the World Economic Forum and writes a regular column for
Forbes. Every day Bernard actively engages his 1.5 million social media followers
and shares content that reaches millions of readers.

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