Data Privacy
There is no perfect security when balancing privacy and encryption. However, companies storing and collecting data are obliged to focus on higher protection levels. End user controls are receiving greater attention as events increase in frequency. The unfortunate aspect is the prevalence of naiveté about security among users of smartphones, laptops, tablets, and cloud applications.
Few are aware of how much personal information is actually transmitted by every attempt to download programs or connect a device. The functional use of a smartphone in line with apps and devices enhance the amount of available information about the user’s personal life.
The end user’s protections and utilization of encryption are useful and needed when balancing privacy and encryption. While some argue for this effort, law enforcement investigative efforts would be hampered. The balance between enhancing security and allowing law enforcement ‘exceptional access’ should be considered with an eye towards what weaknesses would then arise that would defeat end user and encryption security efforts.
The burden of security will begin to broaden as people become savvier about their own security and their interactions making their personal information more vulnerable to hacking. But until then, the level of trust among consumers is already fragile and it can hinder the sense of consumer safety which will impinge future sales, innovation, and technological investment.
Considering how privacy can be weakened and protections decreased by allowing measures for law enforcement exceptional access, such initiatives should be mindful of potential litigation for failure to reasonably secure consumer data. The level of security in the IoT interactions of devices, requires end user care and awareness and company responsibility to apply reasonable efforts to address encrypted security of information while in transit and while it is stored on a server or a device. And there is the balance.
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