Bottom Line Up Front
:: American consumers are slipping into an Orwellian state - not through conscious choice, but by omission and careless pursuit of ‘convenience’
:: Lawmakers are absent; there are insufficient protections for consumers against this Orwelellian possibility
:: The next 5-10 years are our zero hour; if American consumer do not want an Orwellian reality for their children; they must change their behaviour soon
Thoughts
I recently took a trip to Long Island for my reserve duty. In doing so, I had to book a room at a Hyatt near my work. In order to reserve the room, however, I had to accept Hyatt’s ‘privacy’ policy (it would be better titled an ‘invasion’ policy).
To accept Hyatt’s ‘privacy’ policy, I simply had to click a radio button saying I had read it (with a link to the full policy below the radio item). Nothing actually popped up on the screen to verify that I had read the policy. But I’m that guy... the one who actually reads these things start to finish. So I read Hyatt’s ‘privacy’ policy. Frankly, I was horrified.
The full policy can be found here: https://www.hyatt.com/info/privacy-policy
Here are some frightening highlights:
From the ‘Information We May Collect’ Section:
:: “Contact and Identification Information: We may collect information such as your name, contact details (e.g., phone number(s), address, or email) professional title, employer or professional affiliations, and passport and visa information”
:: “Location Information: We may automatically collect information about your precise geolocation”
:: “Demographic Information: We may collect demographic information, such as your gender, nationality, age, and date and place of birth”
:: “Biometric, Health-related or other Sensitive Personal Information: We may collect Sensitive Personal Information…. or biometric information, such as information used for facial recognition;”
:: “Device Content...we may collect information relating to the content on your device.”
From the ‘Applications’ Section:
:: “...we may also collect information stored on your device, including contact information, friends lists, login information”
If you are still reading my ramblings at this point... please take a moment to pause, unplug, and reflect on some of those extracts. Think about the fact that simply staying in a hotel in 2021 necessarily means ‘consenting’ to having your personal information, biometric data, the contents of your computer and cell phone, your friend’s contact info, and your login information all handed over to the hotel where you stayed.
This isn’t sci-fi. In order to reserve a Hyatt hotel room in 2021, you have to accept these terms. Pause and let that set in.
The point of this post isn’t to bash Hyatt (although - shame on you, Hyatt, for doing this...) I actually had a nice stay at Hyatt. The people who worked there were really nice. So nice, in fact, that I doubt they, themselves, would feel comfortable imposing these types of privacy violations on their customers. These privacy violations are skeezy. They just feel wrong. I’d bet $100 Hyatt’s employees would be horrified to read these terms for themselves. And this is precisely what worries me here. Entropy has set in; we have a situation wherein good people are perpetuating privacy violations.
I don’t think Hyatt is unique here. Most major companies do this. This is simply the state of affairs in 2021. But it's not obvious to me that this is how things have to be. Our children do not have to inherit a reality wherein they have to hand over the contents of their laptops just to stay at a hotel. Our children can have an expectation of privacy.
I must admit; I’ve burned out on sensational statements online that try to create a crisis and call to action. And yes - I realize the irony with this post. Even so, I am compelled to highlight this problem. I would love to hear additional perspectives on ways to advocate for change on this. So if anyone reading this has some thoughts to share, please, please send me a note in the about page. A few things I can think of that would help in the near-term would be:
:: Vote with your wallet - in short, just don’t do business with firms that have policies like this... even if it is inconvenient. Work with honest, privacy-respecting firms
:: Write to your local government representatives. Tell them you are concerned with the lack of legislation protecting privacy.
:: Support advocacy groups (e.g. S.T.O.P., EFF, etc.). Give money if you can. If not, help amplify and spread their message.