The subject of data ethics and how the digital world impacts our privacy and basic rights has never been more urgent. This is no longer an academic or niche geek issue as it had been since the inception of the internet and the World Wide Web. Digital and data ethics are issues that affect all our lives, particularly as we have been forced to live increasingly online due to the Covid‐19 pandemic.

We all have to start thinking about who controls the manufacture of and access to the hardware (including how it's manufactured and where the raw materials come from), who runs the software, who can spy on us, who can hack us and who can data farm us. These are issues that we, at the very least, need to be aware of in modern society. We need to ask what threats we need to protect ourselves from democratically, socially and personally. While there is certainly an element of individual responsibility, it is also essential to turn the lens onto business and governments. How can corporations protect us rather than prey on us, and how can so doing help their bottom line?

In this book, I aim to explore both the overarching concepts and principles about why this is important, and offer practical solutions for companies, policymakers and individuals to empower them to push back against these known threats, as well as to future‐proof themselves going forward.

Technology is developing and expanding exponentially. The rate of change is unprecedented and it is only accelerating. What you will find in the coming chapters is information we all need to know and apply in the fast‐evolving technologically driven world we now live in.

Untangling the World Wide Web

One of the challenges for anyone discussing our rights, privacy and data ethics in this digital age is unpicking the many threads that form the web of both threats and solutions in our digital world. As we move through the chapters, I will untangle some of the main threats we all face and explore solutions that can improve our privacy and safeguard both our data and our human rights.

I like to visualise this process as a starburst, with our rights, privacy and data ethics at the centre. A multitude of threats, choices and solutions shoot out of this starburst, which represents a utopian future where we are safe and free to live as we please, both on‐ and offline. These concepts, stories and ideas all interlink, too, creating the web that now supports so many aspects of our lives. Some of the threads within this web can be sticky, and others can lead to unexpected places.

To help you navigate the final section, where I present the best solutions available to us at present to reduce these threats, I have split the information as best I can to relate to individuals, businesses and governments. In each of these chapters, I explore the solutions that are most applicable at each level, although some of these invariably interweave. There is one common thread that connects all of these areas, as well as many of the solutions and threats I will talk about: education.

Education for an Empowered Future

The internet and online world as a whole is, in many ways, amazing. It has allowed us to live our lives like never before and gives us unprecedented access to other people, cultures and communities around the world. We have the power to share and exchange information, perspectives and knowledge in an historically revolutionary/novel way.

I use technology and appreciate all that it brings to my life. However, through my own experiences and journey of discovery, I know how damaging it can be to live in a world without privacy, one where you feel your basic human rights have been eroded. Rather than warning you off technology, I want to help educate you so that you can live your life, on‐ and offline, in a way that empowers you and protects your human rights, including your right to privacy.

While I will explore the multitudinous threats we face in our lives as a result of the shift to digital living, I also provide you with solutions that you can implement as individuals, in your businesses and even at government levels if you are involved here. One bastion of our privacy and rights in an online world is open‐source software. This is one of the key countermeasures that has applications for us at every level of society.

Throughout this book, I will explain how open‐source software (and hardware where it is available) can be applied to help guard against many of the threats that we face to our privacy and human rights. My aim with all the solutions I share is to give you a choice. I am not saying that you have to live your life online in a particular way. My hope is that by reading this book and better understanding the threats in your world you are able to carry out your own risk assessment and make choices about what levels you want and need to go to in order to protect your rights and privacy online.

For example, if you are a female journalist in Afghanistan or a human rights activist in Hong Kong, your threat assessment will probably be more stringent than that of a peace activist in Norway. However, your risk assessment is down to you and what I aim to do later in this book is provide options for your personal security.

Let's start by looking at why data ethics and online privacy are topics that should concern all of us, and why there is no such thing as “digital rights”.