The queen: a living lesson in privacy management

One prominent historian recently suggest that Elizabeth II has not contributed much of historical importance, given her unwillingness to throw herself into debates or speak out on issues.

Yet, say those who’ve worked with her, this refusal to speak publicly should not be mistaken for a lack interest or thoughtfulness.

Her various Prime Ministers have often attested to her keen mind and sharp wit – and her absolute grasp of matters of state.

It’s impossible to know just how much the Queen really understands the daily lives and experiences of the people she seeks to serve.

Yet, having spoken one-on-one to more of them than any of her subjects can ever hope to, she obviously has some sense of the challenges and opportunities people face.

Among those is a challenge she is perhaps uniquely qualified to address.

An Ipsos-Mori report this week suggested that British adults, as a whole, glance at smartphone screens 1.1 billion times every 24 hours.

That’s 28 times per adult over the age of 18 (heaven only knows what the figure is for people younger than that).

We spend an average of 90 minutes per day on non-voice activities on smartphones – three times the amount in 2012. Our conversation, it seems, is via messaging services and increasingly ubiquitous social media.

In much of this activity, we are adding to the databases of some of history’s biggest companies and near-monopolies.

At the same time, we increasingly blur the line between what is considered private and what is open to outside scrutiny.

Many of us seem unable to cope with the notion that, at any given time, we are not represented in the collective stream of consciousness that is social media.