Computer Shopper - UK (2019-10)

ISSUE 380|COMPUTERSHOPPER|OCTOBER 2019 105105

Deletingyourdata
If youdon’t want your datatobeprocessed
anymore, youcan nowask foryour details
to be removed, and the removalofconsent
hastobeaseasyasthe sign-up. So if you
want to stop getting marketing emails,
being contacted by named thirdparties or
just don’t want to use aserviceany more,
therehas to be asimple wayfor youto
remove your consent.
Strictly speaking, the withdrawal method
should be offeredinthe same wayasthe
sign-up process. So if yousigned up fora
serviceoverthe phone, thereshould be a
phone option to withdraw consent.
Similarly,you canask companies to
remove all privateinformation stored about
you, and theyhavetocomply.Thereare
some restrictions on this, however.For
example, if acompanyhas to storesome
datafor legal purposes, such as purchase
information fortax reasons, that datacan
be kept,but all other datamust be deleted.

Gettingyourdata
Under the old dataprotection regime,
youcould contact acompany, ask fora
record of your dataand pay £10 forthe
privilege. Now, under the GDPR, this
information has to be provided forfree,
and it includes electronic records,
database entries and emails.
Strictly speaking, the GDPR does allow
companies to makeacharge, but this is
only allowedinorder to prevent
widespread misuse of the power.

GDPR only allows companies to makea

reasonable charge fordataaccess if “a

request is manifestly unfounded or

excessive, particularly if it is repetitive”.The

ICOsaysthat this must be based on the

administrativecost of processing the data.

Forexample, asking foradatadump of

everything that concerns youisafair

request; asking forafilter of information

that specifically relates to you, mentioned

in emails to specific people, between two

dates, may be considered harder to

achieve.Likewise, going back and

repeatedly requesting the same

information will land youwith acharge.

As aresult, manybig companies now

provide automated methods of handling

this. Forexample, via the Apple privacysite

(privacy.apple.com), youcan request acopy

of all the datathat Apple holds about you.

BIGDATA &MACHINELEARNING

Big data is proving to be ahuge

threattoprivacy. Big data is,

quite simply, the processing of

data stored in volumes too

large fortraditional analytics

tools. The processing of vast

sums of data lets companies

find previouslyunknown

correlations. For example, in

the US, Walmartlearned that

when there were hurricane

warnings, it sold more

strawberryPop-Tarts.

As innocentasthat

example is, there are other

uses of big data to learn more

about you. Back in 2012, Target

could tell with ahighdegree of accuracy,

based on the products thatwere being

bought, thatacustomer was pregnant.

Most big companies are already using

big data heavilytoinfluencetheir

decisions and improve advertising

targeting based on whatyou’ve looked at,

your interests, location

and more. And the more

data thatcan be collected,

the more accuratelyyou

can be profiled.

Sowhatcan you do to

combatthis? Well, you can

restrict whatcompanies

collect about you, and you

can opt out of ad-tracking

networks to preventtargeted

advertising. Taking things to

the ultimate level, you can

avoid using search engines and

online shops foranything that

you wanttokeep private, such

as apregnancy. When you shut

down an account, you can use your GDPR

rights to ensure thatyour data is deleted.

Ultimately, newregulations need to

come into placeto preventthe wholesale

profiling and data collection that’s going

on now, with predefined limits setonhow

long your data can be kept for.

USINGAVPN

Avirtual private network (VPN) is agreat

privacy tool. It creates asecure, encrypted

tunnel between your computer and an

endpointonthe internet. This tunnel means

thatanyone between you and the endpoint

can’t see what’s going on, so your ISPor

hotspotprovider can’t monitor which

websites you’re looking at.

When you use aVPN and connect to a

website or other service, it appears as

thoughyou’re in the same location as

the endpoint, so you can even pretend

to be in adifferentcountrytobypass

some restrictions, such as watching

UK TVwhen you’re abroad.

As such, VPNs are ahandy waytokeep

your anonymityonline and stop some

spying, but they’re notthe full picture.

As we mention in this feature, cookies

stored on your computer and newer

fingerprinting techniques can still identify

you, regardless of whether you use aVPN

or not. Still, aVPN is partofalayered

approach to privacy, protecting an

otherwise unencrypted stream.

We recommend ExpressVPN (www.

expressvpn.com), which has astrict

privacy policy thatincludes no spying or

recording of the sites you visit, and works

with macOS, Windows, iOSand Android.

ABOVE:AVPN canhelp protect your privacy,

and should be part of your layered protection

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ABOVE:Hurricane avoid

heading your way? Stock

up on Pop-Ta rts

ABOVE:Apple lets youdownload all your data