Trust in Digital Life – Theme 2011

If 2010 was the year when Cloud Computing achieved mainstream in the psyche of the industry and politicians, and on the consumer front 2010 was the boom year for Social Networking what does 2011 hold?

My last blog of 2010 ‘Security & Privacy Compromises – Time to show some respect!’ outlined security concerns as the resonant theme throughout my discussions with business and Vendors on the Cloud Computing front, delaying adoption of some compelling Cloud Computing business and IT models. Mixing this with the continued neglect of personal privacy online by headline service sites and vendors such as Facebook and Google 2011 I feel will be a year of reckoning in the security space as both business and consumers confront the challenges of ‘Trust in Digital Life’.

Consumers, well they continue to be the lemmings in the story of our digital evolution. Blindly flocking to the next bright social media light innocently divesting themselves bit by bit (literally!) of their personal privacy. It can only be a matter of time before the honeymoon is over and online ‘Big Corp’ see’s the worm turn.

2011 will be a year for business and Online ‘Big Corp’s’ to establish a real ‘Trust in Digital Life’. Not my title but that off a group of leading vendors (Microsoft, Nokia, ) who have already recognised this challenge and established a movement to address this fundamental modern right and very core issue; read more at the Trust in Digital Life consortium website.

The lines are drawn – on the one side we have responsible business working hard to align with best practice, educating themselves in their regulatory and legislative obligations so they can best protect their prospective users. Then we have the Gung-ho happy go lucky late comer e- businesses and backroom visionaries with the next great concept. Two groups who are firing up websites and launching e-commerce sites without thinking beyond their own ambitions, cavalier in their speed to market exposing a crass attitude towards data protection and the interests of their users. And in the middle sit the Politicians floundering around in a world of out-dated legislation and half-cocked regulation trying to play catch-up and doing so on a timeline that guarantee’s that whatever they end up agreeing on in their ivory towers will be left in the dust of the Digital Dervishes as they reshape our Digital Lives and interactions on an almost monthly basis.

Data has never respected boundaries and to a large extend business is wantonly playing ignorant or turning a blind eye to their the rules and quiet literally anything is going and what is at risk is an innocent trust being given in good faith by users that is being arrogantly squandered.

Will this be the year of reckoning where users start to push back and wake up to the neglect they are receiving from online vendors and service providers or will security practices mature in time to pull us back from the brink?