Last spring, Apple launched a new privacy feature giving iPhone users greater control over how apps track their activity across other apps and websites. It streamlines into a single setting the confusing and sometimes overwhelming privacy options people often face, and the update has been extremely popular.
Yet while Apple’s new privacy feature is a step in the right direction, it is merely the latest in a long line of individualistic solutions to data privacy. Our public conversation about these issues is dominated by the flawed premise that privacy is an individual problem that can be solved by finding the right settings for users to better control their data. Although personal preferences certainly matter, this individual rights framework offers an incomplete understanding of the problem and an inadequate set of solutions.
Read the full article at The Boston Globe.
This article was produced by Footnote in partnership with The Data Co-ops Project.
