Naula O’Connor, President and CEO at the Center for Democracy and Technology had a panel “Protecting the digital you” at this years SXSW Interactive which emphasized digital self in shaping a digital future that respects our right to privacy and the boundaries necessary to REALLY protect the digital you. Today, most of our lives personal and professional are shared online through social media or businesses we as consumers do business with that later share our personal information with secondary and tertiary businesses.

 Governments, corporations and individuals have many important roles in shaping their digital future. Naula mentioned three very important takeaways from her panel:

1. Digital self

2. The power of voice

3. Power structure in the digital world.

The idea of identity and anonymous vs. identifiable speech and power is very interesting. Many times when individuals know that their identity is anonymous online they will interact and engage with others in different ways than if their identity was identifiable. This happens a lot with online harassment and bullying, due to the fact that when you have a platform with identifiable people there is a less of a chance that you will engage in negative content because you are identifiable. Others know who you are and can find out more information on you.

Many times people complain online about certain aspects on Facebook. For example, after complaining it will lead to Facebook to see the content as a violation on some sort of privacy terms and it will terminate or freeze the account. Why are people complaining? Is it too easy to complain online? In one sense this is an undue burden on some individuals because having the opportunity to reach different communities by what you post online is fascinating and they should not have too harsh of repercussions at times. You are able to create communities, content and art for others to identify with.

Digital dignity and identity online is very important because aside from this, as consumers and people there is a huge importance for power structure, such as who has my data, who knows me, how much data are you putting in. Many individuals for convenience when purchasing a product sign into website using their Facebook account, never realizing exactly what personal information we are giving these companies. We tend to go for convenience and at times give too much personal information voluntarily. Naula mentioned that Facebook recently came out with some options where you can determine ahead of time what you want to do with your account if lets say you pass away or you can no longer access the account but want others to be able to access it legally.

“Data is a property right something you own here however in Europe it is a human right,” Naula said.

Amazon is one of the few companies that does not pass your data to secondary and tertiary parties. It assumes that it will collect your data you provide and be able to sell you products personalized to your liking.

“Most Americans are okay with a business having information about them but not when it leads to the business selling information to third parties,” Naula said.