Where are all the privacy pros when the world needs them?
Crimes against humanity and the systematic suppression of human rights should be the lifeblood of privacy, AI and ethics “experts”, but sometimes champions of moral causes can be difficult to geolocate.
It doesn’t take more than a modicum of conscience to notice a tear in the fabric of modern society when IT companies and governments conspire to enable or remain silent in the face of extermination of entire populations.
A recent article in +972 Magazine succinctly summarized similar coverage of a recent trend towards the “cloud platform as a weapon”, even as it is being tested in battle against civilians.
The situation is simple: What do you do when you collect so much private data on people that you run out of space? You tap the public cloud, of course. When you “go outside, to the civilian world”, you not only find companies unencumbered by ethical and privacy concerns, but you can also squeeze them for the lowest price.
According to security sources, Microsoft’s Azure was supposed to provide the military with the cloud on which mass surveillance data would be stored, but Amazon AWS offered a better price.
Rest assured, Microsoft and Google (“Nimbus”) weren’t left out in the cold. Instead, they are providing BigData and AI capabilities with “very significant operational effectiveness”, potentially contributing to crimes against humanity.
Given the daily massacres of children and other atrocities that often use artificial intelligence based on “infinite access” to personal information used to target human beings, it is endlessly surprising to observe the deafening silence of so many self-styled AI professionals, legal experts, privacy gurus and ethics pundits, not to mention the unflinching policy of so-called authorities and government agencies to look the other way.
According to the investigative articles quoted here and other coverage of Israeli use of AI-powered assassination (“Lavender”), the shocking complicity of the big cloud and AI providers of “endless storage” for holding intelligence on almost “everyone” in Gaza contributes to the quotidian butchery of Palestinians.
But the enthusiastic collaboration of bigtech should not come as a surprise, since the dehumanization of people fundamentally means a denial of humanrights. And that includes the right to privacy.
No privacy, no need for privacy compliance, right?
Disclaimer: This blog is an unambiguous indictment of the contemptible apathy of paid professionals who derive satisfaction from having chosen a source of revenue that supposedly contributes positively to society, privacy professionals who pride themselves in protecting individuals and finally of those slippery strategy “consultants” who pretend to guide corporate leaders in navigating their way to making ethical decisions. However, this blog post is in no way intended to be a general condemnation of the public at large, whose silence in the face of grave injustices facing a subjugated population remains a personal decision.
