Communications of the ACM

Home/Opinion/Articles/2018: A Big Year for Privacy/Abstract

Privacy and security

2018: A Big Year for Privacy

By Carl Landwehr
Communications of the ACM, February 2019, Vol. 62 No. 2, Pages 20-22
10.1145/3300224
Comments

View as: Print Mobile App ACM Digital Library In the Digital Edition Share: Send by email Share on reddit Share on StumbleUpon Share on Hacker News Share on Tweeter Share on Facebook

lock on 2018 background, illustration — Credit: Andrij Borys Associates / Shutterstock

The year 2018 may in the future be seen as a turning point for privacy incidents and associated privacy-policy concerns. In March, the Cambridge Analytica/Facebook incident opened many eyes to the unanticipated places personal data reaches, and it continues to generate repercussions.⁴ Google shut down its struggling Google Plus social networking system in October, after announcing it had exposed the data of approximately 500,000 users,¹⁵ only 1% as many as involved in the Cambridge Analytica case. Facebook revealed another data breach in October, this one affecting a reported 29 million users.¹⁴

The open GEDmatch genomics database, developed for genealogy research, was used by police and genetics experts to identify alleged murderers in two "cold cases" and several other crimes.⁸ The site's founders, at first uncomfortable with its use by law enforcement, seem to now be more comfortable with it. Researchers subsequently estimated that today approximately 60% of Americans of European descent could be identified from their DNA, even if they had never registered their DNA with any site.⁶ Further, they forecast the figure will rise to 90% in only two or three years.⁹

No entries found

Log in to Read the Full Article

Sign In

Sign in using your ACM Web Account username and password to access premium content if you are an ACM member, Communications subscriber or Digital Library subscriber.

Need Access?

Please select one of the options below for access to premium content and features.

Create a Web Account

If you are already an ACM member, Communications subscriber, or Digital Library subscriber, please set up a web account to access premium content on this site.

Join the ACM

Become a member to take full advantage of ACM's outstanding computing information resources, networking opportunities, and other benefits.

Subscribe to Communications of the ACM Magazine

Get full access to 50+ years of CACM content and receive the print version of the magazine monthly.

Purchase the Article

Non-members can purchase this article or a copy of the magazine in which it appears.