Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu analyses top trends for the technology industry for 2008

May 19, 2008: Deloitte’s Global Technology Predictions 2008 released in Australia today showcase trends in technology that highlight the use of data to drive knowledge and create value, said Damien Tampling, Deloitte’s technology, media & telecommunications industry (TMT) leader.

“2008 will see an increased user resistance to online tracking, a move from online anonymity to authenticity of users and XBRL becoming the newest business acronym on the block following GAAP and HTML,” he added.

The flight to privacy

The report predicts an increase in awareness and resistance from online users about their privacy.

Jenny Wilson, lead technology partner, TMT industry group comments that though it is beneficial when PCs, search engines, online retailers and social networks use ‘private’ information to help fill forms faster or make useful suggestions, recent controversies show that the online community is highly sensitive to a perception of violated privacy even if privacy has not actually been breached.

“The key to user comfort and acceptance of tracking and storing their personal information is for it to be permission based,” says Jenny Wilson. “Companies have to ensure that there are protocols to access user data and users are given the ability to opt in or out of allowing companies to use and store their personal information,”

Jenny Wilson also said that while the use of most behavioural data is likely to be innocuous, perception does not always tie in with fact and a few more negative headlines about abuse of individuals’ data may be sufficient to raise an outcry.

Some resistance may come from organised lobbies and there are many instances of privacy groups challenging the legality of information retention practices. In the United States, the Centre for Democracy and Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Consumer Federation of America approached the Federal Trade Commission to ask for the creation of a ‘do not track’ list.

In Europe, the Article 29 Working Party, made up of national advisory bodies that provide input on privacy to the European Union, asked for an explanation of search-engine data retention periods.