*Note: This is an excerpt of Margaret Fosmoe’s interview with Kirsten Martin, the director of the Notre Dame Technology Ethics Center, for the Autumn 2022 issue of Notre Dame Magazine.
I walk into this interview with my smartphone in silent mode. Within minutes, I’m wondering if I should unload my digital sidekick entirely. An hourlong conversation with Kirsten Martin has that effect.
In Martin’s view, the concept of online privacy in 2022 is roughly equivalent to the state of environmental protection before adoption of the Clean Air and Clean Water acts in the 1970s. Or akin to automobile safety before seat belts became required equipment in all new American cars in 1968.
It’s almost nonexistent.
Most people don’t realize the sheer volume of personal information that is constantly being pulled from their cellphones and Google searches and the websites they frequent, says Martin, a professor of information technology, analytics and operations in the Mendoza College of Business. She’s a nationally recognized expert on privacy, technology and business ethics.
That personal information is stored, shared and sold by third-party data aggregators intent on learning as much as they can about individuals and their interests, vulnerabilities and buying habits.
The public doesn’t entirely grasp who has their personal information and the volume and intimacy of that information, Martin says.
“There’s a lot of information they can get off of search terms and location data that says a lot more about us than we realize,” she says. These companies “probably know more about us than our doctors or therapists or lawyers.”