Mozilla’s Vice President: Trading Away Your Privacy

Do you trust the National Security Agency or the Internal
Revenue Service more than Google or Facebook? If so, you’re not
alone. A recent Reason-Rupe poll found that most
Americans do not trust big tech companies. 

Mozilla’s Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs, Denelle
Dixon-Thayer, says “data hygiene” should be something every new or
established tech company should be thinking about. Dixon-Thayer sat
down with Reason TV at the 2014 South by Southwest Interactive
Festival in Austin, Texas this year. 

The interview was originally published on April 24, 2014.
Orginal write-up below:

Don’t trust Facebook or Google with your personal
information? You’re not alone.

A recent Reason-Rupe poll found that when it comes to their
personal info, more Americans trust even the National Security
Agency or the Internal Revenue Service over Google or
Facebook.

Mozilla’s Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs, Denelle
Dixon-Thayer, says “data hygiene” should be something every new or
established tech company should be thinking about.

“Trust is our currency,” said Thayer to Reason TV at the 2014 South
by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. “If we don’t
have the trust of our users then we actually aren’t going to be
successful as a company.”
Dixon-Thayer says big data companies need to be upfront with users
about who has access to their data, how long their data is stored,
and do what they can to inform users of government data
requests.

“With data, may come a reward, but also a substantial risk,” says
Dixon-Thayer, who points out that if you keep information for a
long time your company becomes open to subpoenas and NSA
requests.

“It’s just thinking about what that data can do for you and when
does it lose its value to you,” says Dixon-Thayer

In October 2013, Mozilla endorsed the USA FREEDOM Act, which would
have amended the PATRIOT Act and ended dragnet collection of phone
data while providing more oversight of surveillance programs and
the FISA court. The bill is pending in the house judiciary
committee.