As I write this week’s APAC Digest editorial I recall the ancient Chinese curse, “May you live in interesting times.” This week’s editorial is being written the day after the election of maverick U.S. President-elect Donald J. Trump. A couple of months ago I found myself writing an editorial during the week that Britain had voted for Brexit. Both events serve to remind us that people all over the world are becoming both weary and wary of rapid change and are reacting to the immense stresses arising from relentless upheaval. Everywhere we look, change is upon us. In addition to changes at a global level, rapid technology-driven change is all around us, in our homes and in our workplaces. We live in the ‘age of technology.’

In some respects, technology can do more for us than we will ever wish it to. The immense computing power of cloud based storage and ultrafast broadband coupled with an explosion of applications and internet enabled devices defies the limits of our imagination and opens up more and more possibilities every day. But we need to remember that innovations and technological improvements are of little use to us, if they divide and disempower. We need to make technology our servant and not our master.

It is important that we, as leaders in the key technology-related field of privacy, try particularly hard to ensure that however far and fast technology advances, the key principles that underpin our privacy are upheld in the face of any challenges to them. It is all too tempting to surrender to expediency and simply accept that an inevitable corollary of computerisation is compromise of our core ideals.

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As privacy professionals we need to lead the way in designing and developing systems that are inherently respectful of our citizens’ privacy in every possible respect.