Jodi Daniels - Data Reimagined: Building Trust One Byte at a Time

T he great holiday classic, A Christmas Carol, begins with this preface: I have endeavoured in this Ghostly little book, to raise the Ghost of an Idea, which shall not put my readers out of humour with themselves, with each other, with the season, or with me.

With apologies to Dickens, well raise a more modern ghost and send it off to visit a more contemporary and kindhearted businessman. Well call him Bob.

One more updaterather than being whisked away to watch, unheard and unseen, a Christmas past, present, and yet to come, Bob was transported to a parallel dimension where the literary is literal. Hed been sent to see, equally invisibly and inaudibly, the ghosts of data present and past.

In our little story, Bob found he had become a ghostly presence standing with his guide at his own bedside while a parallel version of himself (lets call him Rob) sleeps peacefully next to his wife Maggie. But Bob and the Ghost of Data Present werent the only shadowy figures in the room. A man in a trench coat and fedora slouched against the headboard, notebook in hand.

Who the hell is that? Bob wanted to know. Whats he doing?

The Ghost of Data Present shifted Bobs position to show him the mans notebook. In it, the ghostly spy had logged Robs heart rate and body temperature in ten-minute increments for the last seven hours. Rob snored, and the data detective added a tick mark to a running tally.

Then Bob noticed another shadowy person standing over his wifes sleeping body. Bob rushed the guy and found himself hovering outside the house. His guide stepped through the wall and pulled him back into the bedroom. Right, Bob said. Disembodied. Got it.

Bob resolved to relax. There wasnt anything he could do about the creepy ghost guy watching over the parallel universe Maggie, and he was curious about what his mysterious ghost guide was trying to prove. He closed his eyes and waited.

When his alarm went off, Bob smiled. I was having the weirdest dream, he mumbled to Maggie.

Alexa, whats the weather like? Bob heard Rob say.

Bob opened his eyes and saw he hadnt been dreaming. Or he was dreaming still. Either way, he watched Rob carry out his normal morning routine. Rob asked Alexa a couple of questions, as Bob usually did, and the shadowy detective wrote down the questions and answers. When Rob went into the bathroom, the detective followed and jotted down his weight, reading it over his shoulder from the app on his phone. The number was a bit higher than Bob normally confessed to.

Nobodys going to see that, right? he asked, but his guide just shrugged.

In the kitchen, Rob told Alexa to play NPR as Bob did every morning, and he saw the detective make another checkmark. Starting to enjoy himself, he floated through the kitchen table to read the notepad. On the detectives scribbled grid, Bob noticed a gap of several days and recognized it as the long weekend his family had recently taken. Who sees this? he asked the ghost. Anyone who knows I always listen to the news in the morning could tell I was out of town by looking at this. We put lights on timers to keep it from being obvious, but this would be a dead giveaway.

Rob opened the new fridge Bob bought last month, and the detective flipped to a page detailing everything in it. He deducted a few ounces from the weight of the bagged coffee. Rob adjusted the thermostatMaggie was keen on saving energy and had raised the programmed settings, but the day was already hot, and Rob liked to come into a cool house after his morning jog.

I once visited a man, his ghostly guide said, Whose wife had the logins for their thermostat. When they separated, he stayed in the house, and she made things, lets say, pretty chilly for him.

The guide chuckled, but Bob wasnt sure it was funny. He and Maggie were solid, but he could imagine living in a house whose temperature he didnt controlthe discomfort and the expense!

Rob went out for his run, the detective carefully noting down the precise time that he unlocked the door and that he didnt lock it behind him. Bob was about to follow but stopped as his daughter appeared at the top of the stairs. Good morning, Sweetheart! Bob said. Then, Wait! Whos this creep? Because another version of the same data detective stood just behind his little girl. This is not okay! Bob turned to his guide. Im going to kill that guy if he spies on my kid.

The guide wasnt troubled by Bobs anger. You signed her up for it.

No, I

Didnt read the terms of service, did you?

Bob lunged at the guy and found himself in his office. Rob was at his desk and no detective stood behind him.

Thats better, Bob said.

Give it a minute, said his guide.

The data detective walked into Bobs office. Hows it going, Bob?

He can see me? Bob asked his guide.

Going great! said Rob.

The data detective unslung a bag from his shoulder and opened it over Robs desk. Hundreds of identical notebooks poured out. They mounded on the desk. They fell onto the floor and Robs lap. And they kept coming.

Whats he doing? Bob asked.

Hes delivering the data your company collected overnight.

We dont spy on people! Bob was aghast.

Of course you do, the ghost said.

Well leave our parable here before Bob gets whisked back to the past, into the offices of Facebook and the lair of hackers because we suspect that nobody picks up a book on data privacy and security for the fun stories. There will be others, but we hope this one has served its purposeto introduce you to the different and often conflicting ways people understand and experience data.

To Bob-as-consumer, data collection is largely invisible. We believe that if he were more aware of how much personal information is being collected about himabout all of usit would cause him some concern, but were not here to data-shame anyone. We get it. In fact, part of what makes our jobs as privacy and security professionals difficult is the amount of finger-pointing and superior sneering our industry inflicts on people who are just trying to keep up with the speed of technology. We understand that many of our peers come off as cranks or paranoid elitists who have no idea what youre doing but youre doing it wrong. Were not like that. We promise.