TEDxJacksonville: We Don't Have a Privacy Problem

Cullen Hoback is an American filmmaker and digital rights advocate who has been touring the world with his most recent documentary TERMS AND CONDITIONS MAY APPLY. But after making an entire film about digital privacy, Hoback realized we’ve been getting the digital privacy debate all wrong. “When we talk about privacy online,” he argues, “we’re not talking about the right thing. You cannot have privacy unless you have ownership–not shared ownership, real ownership.”

Every search we make, everywhere we walk with a cell phone in our pockets, every photo we take gets added to our “digital self”–a person who is fragmented across different servers around the world, and shared by different companies. But, as Hoback reminds us, this digital analogue of you is not owned by you–and any effort to regain digital privacy must begin with restoring your property right to your digital self.

Cullen Hoback is an American filmmaker and digital rights advocate who has been touring the world with his most recent documentary TERMS AND CONDITIONS MAY APPLY (2013). Hoback has appeared on MSNBC, CNN, NPR, Fox, Huffpo Live, etc. and has written op-eds for The Guardian and other major media outlets. He has won numerous awards, and his films have played in theaters and on TV stations around the world. Hoback is currently developing a slate of films (documentaries and narratives), all with a clear social purpose.



This talk comes from TEDxJacksonville's 2014 conference. Connect with TEDxJacksonville here.