The EU's Just Provoked a Cyber War

Collecting personal data was easy in the early 21st century. All you had to do was notify the information commissioner that you were now responsible for personal data and the authorities were happy. As a business owner today it's a very different story. You must now implement Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC. Non-compliance will result in a fine of  up to €1 million or up to 2% of the global annual turnover of your company. 

This Data Protection Directive is the EU's efforts to protect privacy and personal data. It sets up a regulatory framework which seeks to strike a balance between a high level of protection for the privacy of individuals and the free movement of personal data within the European Union (EU). To do so, the Directive sets strict limits on the collection and use of personal data and demands that each member state set up an independent national body responsible for the protection of these data.

It's a worthwhile due diligence process which supports qualitative risk management of our users privacy and it does it much better than ISO's 22307, 21547 and 27002. There's also a US-EU Safe Harbor certification programme and new;y drafted Data Protection Directive which contains 7 principles that help businesses to reassure their customers that that their data and privacy is back in their own control. 

1. Notice—data subjects should be given notice when their data is being collected;
2. Purpose—data should only be used for the purpose stated and not for any other purposes;
3. Consent—data should not be disclosed without the data subject’s consent;
4. Security—collected data should be kept secure from any potential abuses;
5. Disclosure—data subjects should be informed as to who is collecting their data;
6. Access—data subjects should be allowed to access their data and make corrections to any inaccurate data; and
7. Accountability—data subjects should have a method available to them to hold data collectors accountable for following the above principles.

For a chronic sustainable view on this it may be worth asking yourself where does privacy come from and why does it exists ? For Christians the fig leaf story is the origins of privacy. Adam and Eve cover themselves up after they ate from the Apple tree and life goes down hill for them after that. This indicates that  privacy is a satanic social mechanism to create divide between people, it’s an illusion of control that evidently makes you susceptible to being controlled. 

To break down this view on privacy it may be wise at this point to emphasise that there’s two key ways of dissecting individuals actions, those of a network thinker and those of institutional thinker. Network thinkers are inherently open with, and supportive of, everyone around them. Whereas institutional thinking encourages us to be closed-off and controlling. If you’re from the legal system then it would be fair to say you’re likely an institutional thinker. If you're Mark Zuckerberg then you're likely to be a network thinker.

What I’ve learnt from the EU’s actions is that they’re only giving better privacy controls (with the Data Protection Directive and the US-EU Safe Harbor programme) because it deludes us into thinking we’re in control. What’s really going on is an attempt to force feed us a social mechanism that we've already begun to reject as we develop our network view on life. They’re doing this in order to shift power away from the threat of unregulated communities such as those forming around major websites, and back to segregated society that is easier to control.

There’s clearly a cyber war beginning between a society who’ve become confident enough to refuse the ‘corrupt-monetary society’ and the existing society that’s trying to avoid further discreditation, coup-attempts and chaos. Each side is a threat to each other so there’s a lot of heat, but network and institutional thinkers needn't fall out over this. The rivalry is unnecessary because both mindsets are in agreement that the problem with our monetary system is now totally irreversible and that there’s no alternative society established enough to migrate to.

We’re definitely in a predicament as a global nation. Getting out of it needs to be the area of our combined focus, development and direction for both mindsets moving forward. The questions are what side are you on and what will you do next ? Regardless of your views you should direct your energy and talents towards reducing risk and providing solutions and not opposing and campaigning against the others view who bare equal blame. 

Hywel Ap Buckler
Founder
Trusted Office / Wave Telecoms