QOMPLX cofounder and chief technology officer, Andrew Sellers recently published an article for the Forbes Technology Council discussing the need for guidance and standardization around data collection. Read: “The Coming Reckoning for Unlimited Data Collection and Use.”
Data collectors inside almost every business and government agency have turned consumer and business information into the commercial product of the information age. Organizations have siphoned up information about everything from customers’ buying habits to location data—almost unabated.
Despite all the potential to use that data for good and the promise of machine learning and automation, however, QOMPLX co-founder and CTO Andrew Sellers cautions that too many data collectors have abused their ability to gather information. Writing for Forbes Technology Council, Sellers argues that privacy advocates and government regulators have been forced to step in.
GDPR and CCPA To The Rescue
Regulations such as GDPR and California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) have been born as a counterpunch to incidents such as Cambridge Analytica or - to use a more recent example - the digital tracking tools used for COVID-19 contact tracing.
Sellers writes about data stewardship and the need for transparency, not only about how companies and governments are using data, but also how they retain and secure what they collect, and how it’s destroyed when it’s no longer useful.
“Data is currency,” Sellers writes, “and the time for maturity, ethical decision-making and responsible guardianship has arrived. It must begin with accountability for corporate data collectors.”
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