How many electronic traces does an unsuspecting citizen leave within 24 hours?

He showed me a card. Up and down were a street and a number. "Eight visits last month to this address. Every Tuesday and Thursday. Always at the same time, between 7.15-8.45 pm At the time he is supposed to be in the office and works. He has found another. " My girlfriend was clearly confused. "Did you go to a detective?" I asked her. "No. I just searched his cell phone. It automatically records the places it visits. He does not know it, of course, because if he knew he would have turned it off. Luckily they never went well with technology, "he added.

Leaving from our meeting, my mind constantly turned to the idea of ​​the ubiquitous Big Brother. Is it finally hidden in the simplest, everyday things?

The issue of personal data protection in the era of information, Internet and telecommunication dominance seems more relevant than ever. The recent revelations of the former NSA technical adviser Edward Schoonen for the extended surveillance by the US Department of State were another unpleasant chapter in history.

But in the end, we may not even need to dive into the deep waters of Snowden. A withdrawal from the neighborhood ATM, a payment with our credit card are enough to throw behind us our infinite electronic traces. Even surfing the magical world of the Internet is a constant flirtation with the so-called "Big Brother feeling", because, whatever move we make, we ultimately provide our personal stigma. As author Sue Halpern writes in an article entitled " Are we puppets in a wired world? In the New York Review of Books, Gmail, Google's e-mail service, scans our personal messages for words that can be matched in ads. It is indicative, in fact, that the company, just a few days ago - obviously pressured by user complaints - proceeded to update the text of its terms of use, stating that the incoming and outgoing e-mails of users are automatically analyzed by software, so to create targeted ads. Full transparency has been achieved, although it is obvious that almost no one will bother to read the new terms of use. Anyway, nothing illegal is happening. We all agree, and Wall Street seems to value Facebook or Google, not the value of the services they provide, but the value of the data they collect.

There are few who consider this discussion to be excessive, with shades of unnecessary hysteria. The security requirement after 11 in September seems strong and capable of sacrificing to a certain extent personal data. A typical example is the creation of a Twitter account named "I have nothing to hide", where various users expressed their indifference to watching their personal data after the Snowsten revelations.

In any case, we have to admit that the issue has been well integrated into the public debate. Even art seeks answers. At the moment, two projects on privacy abuse go up to theater scenes in London: one is the new version of George Orwell's classic "1984" at the Playhouse Theater, while on the Donmar Warehouse theater scene in London, a new theatrical, title "Rivastity", born in the shadow of the revelations of Snowdon. His young writer, James Graham, advised journalists, politicians, professors, and even former service officers to write. "You may not know personally that you suffer from a trauma, but a psychologist can identify it through your online activity," he said in an interview.

Lilian Mitrou, Associate Professor at the Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering at the University of the Aegean and chair of the Expert Group who are discussing the draft General Data Protection Regulation, which will be the new regulatory framework of the European Union, says: "We are out of range and the extent of technological capabilities. No one is fully aware of the number and type of data recorded. While supervising my graduate work at the Department of Digital Systems at Piraeus University, I was surprised to see that there is a program, a digital proofing tool, which allows you to retrieve any information, given that a picture has gone through the smartphone from the beginning of its use, even if we have deleted it. (This is the forensics tool that costs 3.000-4.000 euros.) Smartphones are a treasure of information as they reveal where we are, what we do. Even the map we use to find a road keeps de facto more data than anyone imagines. "

A discussion with technology experts proves that private surveillance is routine in the digital age. With packages ranging from 500 Euros and having just for a few minutes someone in possession of it, the "mobile phone target" can install programs that allow it to fully record all the conversations that are made, sent messages, even the geographic position of the holder.

"Now, the smart phone works as a computer, as a transmitter, as a receiver, as a GPS," explains Mitrous, adding: "In fact, bring with it an incredibly useful multi-tool. Many times, however, we have no conscious of what exactly is happening and what impact many of these features have on the smartphone in our lives. For example, there is an app that alerts us where our friends are at all times. There's also an app through which you're shooting
something with your cell phone and you receive instantly and over the Internet information about the item you have taken. It was originally applied to products, but it is now extended to people. Think about it, take a picture of yourself, and with a system based on facial recognition, collect any information available for you on the Internet and on social media such as Facebook. It looks like the end of privacy. "

The case of protecting our privacy is a matter of delicate balance. Of course, the intense penetration of technology changes the data; on the other hand, however, the protection of our personal moments is also a personal decision.

In Facebook, one can see massively replicating messages on the walls of users who require the protection of their personal data. The delicate irony of the case, however, is that at the same time some of these users have no trouble doing "check in" where they stand and where they find, by their geographic position, to post their child's first photo of maternity hospital and communicate their emotional state in the transparent world of their hundreds of friends whom they may have met since they went to the Third Grade.

"It is doubtful if most people realize that the information they publish on the Internet may be a characteristic of them forever," says Georgios Roussopoulos, Ph.D., Computer and Informatics Engineer, expert scientist of the Audit Department of the Personal Data Protection Authority, office coordinator D. of Informatics Auditors, and he added: "However, in the field of citizens' protection, the new regulation on personal data has already been passed in the first reading in the European Parliament. ios and aims to address these issues by introducing yet another right: the right to oblivion. It is the right to be able to erase data that have resulted from its past activity when it is no longer up to date. To a certain extent, this right is still enjoyed by citizens today, just the European Union is trying to strengthen it by enlarging it so that it is clear to all that we have the right and we can demand that old data be deleted. "

"Will we continue on the same path, leaving governments alone to exercise greater control, more and more surveillance, or we will create something like a Magna Card for the Web and we will say that it is now so important, so much of life so that it must be equated with human rights? " The words belong to Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the man who invented the World Wide Web, and today has launched a campaign called "The Web We Want" so that countries get a charter of rights for the Internet.

But is it easy to find a golden ratio between managing new forms of crime and protecting individual freedoms? "Obviously. As long as we all agree on the new social contract that sets limits and rules and join a participatory anti-crime policy, which means that we help the Police and the Authorities in dealing with crime. The protection of our rights and freedoms will be done within the framework of the rule of law, which means, however, that we will respect each other, we will fulfill our obligations as citizens, but we will also obey the laws of the state. Otherwise, the Big Brother and the Boss of the Mafia will rule, sometimes showing and sometimes not their "real face" "says Giannis Panousis, professor of Criminology at the University of Athens.

A few days ago, the European Court of Justice made a historic decision, overturning the European directive from 2006, which obliged Member States to store data for at least six months, such as who spoke to whom, how long space, etc. The advocates of individual freedoms cheer up. However, the road is long. Especially if we look at the Big Brother each time we look at ourselves in the mirror. * Published in BHmagazino Saturday 19 April 2014