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KITCHENER — A cybersecurity expert predicts major disruptions for digital advertising and marketing as people gain more privacy in their online communications and transactions.

There is a renewed focus on privacy in digital communications thanks to revelations last year of massive spying on the web by the U.S. National Security Agency, Gus Hunt, former head of technology at the Central Intelligence Agency, said in a speech in Kitchener on Tuesday.

"A year or so ago, most of us did not give a thought to it," said Hunt, who is a member of the advisory board of Cambridge-based network security firm eSentire.

Credit card companies know a lot about their customers — where they are going, where they have been and where they like to spend money. How that information is controlled and shared is becoming more pressing now, Hunt said.

"The goal is to put control back in your hands," he said.

In the near future, people will make decisions about what personal information must be kept private, and those controls will stay in place when it is shared with others. Amazon and Google now use encryption for data stored in their clouds. Google is developing default encryption for its Gmail users. Microsoft and Yahoo already offer it. An Israeli cellphone maker offers the ability to encrypt every call.

"Technologies being developed today are going to push into your hands the ability to make decisions and control your rights, your privacy for your data around your digital life," Hunt said. "And they will be completely under your control."

That trend has profound implications for advertising-driven business on the web. Advertisers and marketers look at your data and know what you are asking for. They look at your internet trail and they push ads at you.

"If they can't look inside my data, and they can't look inside my pathways, and they don't know where I've been, and they don't actually know that it's me, how in the world do you push anything at me?" Hunt said.

The so-called Internet of Things also is a big issue in the world of cybersecurity.

The use of electronic beacons and sensors will increase so that more machines can be controlled by smartphones, including air conditioners, furnaces, stoves or crock pots loaded with meals ready for cooking, vehicle starters, coffee makers, Christmas decorations, external lights, home entertainment systems and the like.

They also can be used to activate smartphone apps in stores to push sales, in museums to explain exhibits and in ambulances to give your medical history to paramedics and doctors waiting in the emergency room.

The Internet of Things will increase opportunities for hackers because billions of smartphones will generate much more data that may be vulnerable, said Hunt. Former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney had a pacemaker removed over fears it could be hacked by terrorists, he said.

"The mobile device is the target of the future," Hunt said. "This is where the attackers are heading."

This year, cyber crimes are expected to cost the U.S. economy $114 billion. Worldwide cyber crimes cost $475 billion, or the equivalent of the world's 27th largest economy, said Hunt.

To illustrate the threat posed by the Internet of Things, Hunt talked about the digital picture frames that were a hot Christmas gift several years ago.

"There was a picture frame that was specifically built that had an internet connection so it could actually connect to your house," Hunt said.

People liked it and sales soared.

"But this picture frame came with a very special gift for Christmas just for you. It came pre-built with a virus already in the software that was on the frame," Hunt said.

from http://www.therecord.com/news-story/4583740-return-of-digital-privacy-will-hurt-online-marketing/