This topic emerged through a screening of emerging issues in science, technology and society in the context of the FET CSA OBSERVE.

http://www.horizon-observatory.eu/radar-en/index.php

The big picture

Privacy issues are an important element in current future oriented debates especially in the context of the rising use of big data analytics and concepts like the internet of things or industry 4.0. on the one hand and concentration of user data in the hands of very few private companies on the other. Two elements from the OBSERVE screening highlight the type of disruptive pathways that may be emerging both in terms of privacy threats and privacy solutions:

Extraordinary advances in facial recognition cause huge privacy issues

Extraordinary advances in facial recognition raise severe privacy concerns. Privacy activists mass-quit U.S. government committee on facial recognition privacy. Source: The Intercept Blog Unofficial Sources;

Privacy preserving technologies

There may be a huge emerging demand for products such as the Indie Phone that are explicitly designed to preserve privacy. Key concepts are homomorphic encryption and differential privacy. Source: The Economist Technology Quarterly;