Data Industry Must Step Up to Protect Consumer Privacy

[Commentary] We are awash in data. Every time we go online or use a smartphone or credit card, our purchases and movements are tracked. We keep our schedules, plan trips and celebrate birthdays online. When we go outside, ubiquitous CCTV and security cameras capture our movements. And a world of interconnected refrigerators, thermostats and other everyday devices -- the Internet of Things -- lies just ahead.

To reap the economic and social rewards of Big Data and the Internet of Things, we're told we need to scrap many of the basic privacy principles. Data brokers, marketers and other companies that join the big-data stampede while ignoring basic privacy principles do so at their own peril. New laws would help. But there is more we can do right now to address the fundamental challenge of helping consumers regain control of their most sensitive and private information. To this end, I am calling on the data-broker industry to join a comprehensive initiative, which I call Reclaim Your Name. Through creation of consumer-friendly online services, Reclaim Your Name would empower the consumer to find out how brokers are collecting and using data; give her access to information that data brokers have amassed about her; allow her to opt-out if a data broker is selling her information for marketing purposes; and provide her the opportunity to correct errors in information used for substantive decisions. Moving forward, it will be crucial to incorporate transparency, choice, access and other basic privacy principles into big-data analytics. It will require the focused efforts of companies and experimentation by technologists. The result can be a system that respects consumer privacy and engenders consumer trust, allowing big data to reach its full potential to benefit us all.