SXSW Day 1: Digital Privacy

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photo[2].jpgBy Rob Meldrum, innovation director, Naked UK

 

Day 1 at SXSW. Wow. It’s been big. I’ve crammed in as many talks as I possibly could. I’ve also crammed in as much free BBQ as I possibly could, but that’s another (much less interesting) story.

 

It didn’t start well. I joined a large queue and waited patiently. Twenty minutes later and I’m being turned away at the last minute as the venue was full. But my enthusiasm was not dampened and I ended up wandering into a very interesting book reading by Jeff Gothelf, of his book Lean UX. Other than having possibly the best name ever, there were some really insightful thoughts on structuring teams and borrowing from software development within product design.

But the big theme that ran through many of the talks today was data privacy. Eric Schmidt (of Google fame) spoke at length about the issues facing the developing world; their corrupt governments and the people that fight against them both using the digital world to control and to mobilise. And of course he couldn’t talk about corrupt governments without discussing GCHQ and the NSA. He said “we were attacked by the Chinese in 2010. And we were attacked by the US in 2013. Know for sure that we have strengthened our defences.”

 

Data permanence played a part in the discussion – the realisation that everything you put on the internet will be there to access forever, like a digital scar. He even suggested that parents might have to have ‘the data permanence’ discussion years before they have the awkward ‘birds and bees’ one.

 

Continuing the theme of privacy Tony Salvador from Intel was concerned that we are becoming too smart because of technology. He spoke about the concept that the few knew everything about the many, and that this has only been possible due to the digital revolution.

 

With video linkups from Julian Assange and Edward Snowdon to come, digital privacy is going to be one of the big themes of this years SXSW.