Original version

BBC World Service Online

The Forum

Documentaries

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

The programme that explains the present by exploring the past

The programme that explains the present by exploring the past.

The Forum: Digital shadows

Discussion & Talk

Digital shadows

24/03/2012 GMT

BBC World Service - The Forum, Digital shadows

How much privacy is possible in a world which is increasingly digital?

In a digital world, where a single piece of data may be copied and backed up a thousand times, is privacy now an illusion?

When you search the internet or pay with a credit card, do you ever wonder who might be snooping over your shoulder, mining the data about you that leaks out? 

Increasingly, computers and algorithms don't need human intervention while monitoring and piecing together the secrets of our lives from the scraps of information which we unwittingly leave behind in cyberspace. 

So does this mean that privacy has become obsolete? Or are there either technological fixes or policy initiatives that can at least halt, if not reverse, the tide? 

Joining Bridget Kendall to discuss digital privacy are IBM Chief Scientist Jeff Jonas, Professor Nigel Shadbolt, UK government’s adviser on digital data, and  ground-breaking electronic artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.

Illustration by Emily Kasriel: Can we expect privacy in the digital age?

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Forum

Digital shadows

Genres

Formats

Brand

BBC World Service Online

About BBC World Service