<h2 class=" eplus-wrapper" id="crosshead"><strong>Inner sanctum</strong></h2>

It used to be quite easy to disappear. In 1859, an 18-year-old Welsh boy called John Rowlands vanished from his hometown. Nine years later he showed up again as American journalist and explorer Henry Morton Stanley.

But today, people wanting to start a new life can never disappear entirely, because we are constantly being tracked by our devices. The average person in the USA has their location exposed 747 times a day; in the EU, 376 times.¹

That is why one academic wants to see Big Tech driven from our lives. HarvardA top US university, founded in 1636. professor Shoshana Zuboff says we have lost one of our most fundamental rights: the right to privacy.

Her warning is timely. Criticisms are mounting of digital giants. In the last year these companies have collectively sacked 330,000 employees, often with little warning.² This has put new scrutiny on the practices of tech companies, and made experts more optimistic that we can regulate them. 

But Zuboff thinks this only goes so far. What really matters, she argues, is who has control of data.

No matter what privacy guarantees the tech companies offer, she says, they still ultimately own our data. That means they can renegeGo back. on their promises at any time.

Worse still, we probably will not even realise they have done it. The companies guard their secrets fiercely, so the outside world still has very little understanding of how their technology works.

The only answer, she believes, is to bring Big Tech under democratic oversight. That way, we have control.

She thinks we should start with a so-called "right to sanctuaryA place where someone or something is protected or given shelter.". In older times, a person could claim sanctuary in a church to avoid persecution. Today, it would allow us to demand that Big Tech stop collecting data from our homes and other private spaces.

Yes: People need the ability to be alone, to go unnoticed, even to leave it all behind if they want to. Big Tech's constant tracking and monitoring is an affront to our privacy. 

No: Big Tech uses the data it collects to make our lives better: to improve the services we use and recommend things we might like. That is a much more tangible benefit than privacy.

Or... What the tech companies are doing is wrong, but we cannot stop them by invoking some ancient law. We need to turn them from private companies into public services, where we as citizens have control.

Harvard - A top US university, founded in 1636.

Renege - Go back.

Sanctuary - A place where someone or something is protected or given shelter.