Privacy is PlaceSpeak’s Default Setting

Here is the second in our series of posts on how PlaceSpeak is committed to the protection of our users’ personal information and our persistent efforts in ensuring privacy by default.

PlaceSpeak is recognized as a Privacy by Design Ambassador.  Privacy by Design is a concept developed by Ontario’s former Information and Privacy Commissioner, Dr. Ann Cavoukian, back in the 90’s, to address the ever-growing and systemic effects of Information and Communication Technologies, and of large–scale networked data systems. The goals of Privacy by Design — ensuring privacy and gaining personal control over one’s information and, for organizations, gaining a sustainable competitive advantage — is accomplished by practicing the 7 Foundational Principles.

The second principle focuses on having privacy built into the system by default.

Privacy as the Default Setting

Here is Dr. Cavoukian talking about building privacy right into the system:

http://youtu.be/kfIofQAy3Pk
We can all be certain of one thing – the default rules! Privacy by Design seeks to deliver the greatest degree of privacy by ensuring that personal data are automatically protected in any given IT system or business practice. If an person does nothing, their privacy still remains intact. No action is required on the part of the individual to protect their privacy – it is built into the system, by default

PlaceSpeak’s Approach

PlaceSpeak protects privacy by default. In business practice, PlaceSpeak “separates church and state” wherein the proponent, be it from the public, private or non-profit sector, never have access by design to the private identity information of the public participants.

PlaceSpeak ensures that participants do not inadvertently disclose personal information by setting defaults to an anonymous setting.

Example

PlaceSpeak collects the smallest amount of information required for an accurate geo-verification process. Never will any personal information be sold, exchanged, transferred, or given to any other company for any reason. Additionally, PlaceSpeak does not share any information about our users with advertisers or third parties for any reason.

PlaceSpeak user profiles are not visible to other users or to proponents. They function solely as a control centre where users can manage their name, address, social media connection methods, and the profile picture that is attached to their comments, if they wish to activate it.

Impact

With privacy as the default setting, participants must deliberately choose to make their information available rather than opt-in to privacy settings.

To learn more about PlaceSpeak’s approach to privacy, please visit our Privacy Policy page on our main website.