He wakes up at 7:31 AM just like the day before. With ignorance as his shield, he ventures out into a world without privacy.
The young man (a title given to him by his mother) sits submissively in his bed and idly scans e-mail on his phone. Another notice from his bank, a forwarded e-mail from his friend, five new e-mails from his co-workers, and an intimate message from a girl he met last weekend at a party. He suppresses a smirk, she is toying with him and he knows it.
Unbeknownst to him, four copies of his private e-mail are stored in locations around the world. The first is stored locally on his phone, a second on a search engine giant’s servers, a third on a consumer electronics company that he forwards his e-mail through and a fourth on the massive social network’s servers where the flirty message originated. Each of these copies are duplicated across servers for the safety of redundancy. Four separate corporations, run by people he will never meet, store his most private messages. A fifth corporation, a telecommunications conglomerate, logs the entire process and associates it with his account.After checking his e-mail, he pulls himself out of bed, takes a shower, and eats a homemade breakfast burrito. Just wearing a towel, he glances over to see if his blinds are closed. He is most conscious of his privacy when he is alone.
He pulls his favorite shirt out of his closet (a medium sized black unlabeled t-shirt) and pulls it over his head. He leaves his apartment after double checking that he locked the deadbolt on his front door.
Unknown to him, he is video recorded as he leaves his home by his apartment’s security system. The resulting tape is scheduled to be stored in a permanent archive.He walks the two blocks to his bus stop just in time to catch the 43. He sits down on his normal seat on the bus (between the middle door and the support pole) and puts in his headphones. For the entire 30 minute duration of the ride, none of the 23 people on the bus make eye contact with each other. The bus driver lazily and incoherently babbles into the onboard PA.
When he first got on the bus, he scanned his bus pass which logged his account identifier into the metro system. After doing so, he walked by an on-board microphone that was set to record the entire bus. At the same time he was recorded by two different video cameras on the ceiling of the bus. As he travels down the road, the GPS in the bus sends its coordinates back to the bus station.He sits calmly and listens to the Garden State Soundtrack for the 46th time.
Meanwhile 23 other GPS enabled devices sit in the pockets of the passengers. In any of those cell phones ring, they will enable microphones that would pick up and transmit the man's voice. Even if the GPS features are disabled, the cell phones can still be triangulated via cell towers. In the off chance that both the GPS features and cell networks were disabled, the Internet enabled phones could still be geo-located when they accessed public WiFi routers. Together there are 70 different ways that the man sitting in his favorite seat on the bus could be tracked.
Eventually he reaches his stop and steps off the bus and into the city. Adjusting his earphone, he starts the short hike to work. He nods at the police officer who is stopped at a red light. The cop doesn’t nod back.
As he walks the half mile from his bus stop to his office, he is recorded by 4 different video cameras. The first is in the police car, the second and third are intersection cameras and the final camera is in the ATM he walks by.He eventually makes it to his office building and continues up the staircase. He says “hi” to the friendly man at front desk, grabs a glass of water and unpacks his laptop. He greets his co-workers and eventually settles at his desk.
As he entered the office building, he swiped his card and was identified as having opened the door. This action was stored in a remote database. He then walked into the office where he entered a room with 25 other cell phones. There are also 26 computers. Together there are over 50 different devices that can access the internet. Each of them identify their location and general details every time they connect to a server.The privacy conflicts that the young man encountered in the offline world are nothing compared to those he will encounter later today in the online world.
He sits down at his desk and loads up all of his normal browser bookmarks to quickly skim the days news. He checks his e-mail again.
One of his friends sent him a link to an online video of a little kid singing a Beatles song. Having already seen it, he responds with a “lol” and switches tabs so he can skim the most popular articles on his favorite social news site. He clicks several of the corresponding links and is taken to some websites with various clever images and lists. The content is designed to be consumed quickly. He digests it like watching a flip book.
Around the office he hears erratic bursts of laughter as his coworkers click the same links. Noticing this "popcorn effect" for the first time, he shares his thought on a micro blogging service.
As soon as the young man opened his Internet browser, his operating system immediately began logging each website he visited. When his homepage loaded, the action was logged by the search giant. This record is owned by the same company that owns the second website he visited to watch the music video. Both actions are stored somewhere on an unknown server. The third site he visits, his favorite social network, logs every action he takes and associated it directly with his account. The same is done for all of his friends.
After leaving that closed garden, he shares his popcorn thought with his acquaintances on the micro blogging service. His message is dispersed through a massive API where an untold number of services permanently store it and associate it with his account.
He has a similar experience when he browses his favorite social news website. All of his actions on the domain are stored and associated with his account. Even after he leaves this domain to view the day’s funny pictures and top ten lists, his actions are tracked either by the search engine giant or a large Redmond based software company.
At one point he isn’t on a page that displays ads by these major ad networks, but is instead tracked by a specific online retailer who has its own ad network. The online retailer associates his page views with his shopping account. All of this data is stored permanently and mined to ensure that the online retailer is able to maximize profits.
He finishes his morning internet round by buying tickets on a movie ticket site. The popular site stores his zip code and credit card details.Later, after finishing a long day at work, he stops by his local grocery store to pick up a six pack of beer. He goes straight to the back of the store and brings the drink back to the register. Despite his facial hair, the clerk requests to see his ID. He complies and pulls it out of his wallet. The young man keys in his phone number in absence of his grocery store loyalty card so that he can save $0.50. The cash register prints out a receipt and the cashier shoves it in a plastic bag along with the purchase. The man thanks the grocer and continues on his way home.
As soon as he stepped into the grocery store he was picked up by one of about 20 video cameras that continually record shoppers. As he approached the checkout stand he started a three tiered identification process that rivals that of getting a Passport.
The first method was via government ID and was paradoxically the least useful to the grocery store. The cashier ignored his picture and instead focused on typing his birthdate into the register computer as speedily as possible.As he finally gets back to his apartment he grabs the package from his doormat and settles down for the evening. He orders in a pizza because he is too tired to cook for himself. The young man finishes his day by splitting the beers with his roommate and watching a movie.
The second form of identification was via his phone number that was tied to his grocery card number. This allows the grocery store to log all of the young man’s purchases. This data is later analyzed to determine spending patterns of different demographics and to identify sale combinations that maximize profits.
The final form of identification underwent the most analysis. The man’s credit card required an autograph. This transaction was stored by four different companies. The first was stored locally at the point of sale by the grocery store. The second was stored on his credit card’s servers. The third was on his bank’s servers and the final copy was stored on the servers of his favorite personal finance website.
The package on his doorstep hints at only the tip of two data icebergs. The first one is owned by the online retailer and the second one is owned by a worldwide shipping company. His address and name are stored in massive databases owned by the two corporations. He will never have access to his information stored in shipping database. Records of the contents of the package, along with his credit card information are stored by the online retailer so that it can show relevant suggestions when he visits the website.
His address, phone number, name and pizza preferences are stored by the pizza company when he places his order. This transaction is also stored by the pizza place, his bank, the credit card company and his personal finance website.Back in his bed, he looks at the calendar, the date is November 3rd 2009. This is not some day off in the distant future, it is today. This is not some made up character, this is my life and it extends directly into yours.
His movie selection is stored on the server’s of the consumer electronics manufacturer from earlier. Again his financial transaction is recorded by four corporations.
The balance between privacy and convenience is fickle. It is unproven and the rules are uncertain. Just because something is free online does not mean you are not making a sacrifice when you use it.
That said, I do not believe that sharing personal data for convenience sake is evil. Many times it is economical and even beneficial. The fact that your pharmacy has access to all of your prescriptions gives them the ability to check for potentially lethal interactions. This is fundamentally good. Policies like these save lives. Information is not a scarce resource like oil or coal, it is bountiful and truly limitless. I believe it should be up to the individual to decide what they want to do with their person data. After all, a few of the corporations above were opt in.
At some point in the future, I plan to completely open source my life. By this I mean, putting all of my personal data online. This will include everything from my browsing history to my digitized DNA. I have been conducting research on the ramifications of this for a little over a year and this article unveils some of the realizations I have had.
As you can see, the leap to throwing away my privacy is actually much smaller than I originally thought. In fact, both you and I are already almost all of the way there.
The references to major corporations made above were all real. The actual corporations are listed below with some relevant facts.
"search giant" - Google Inc.:
In addition to the data points listed above, Google is storing hundreds of other metrics about it's users.
"consumer electronics" - Apple Inc.:
Apple is rumored to be building a $1 billion data center so it is likely that more data like that mentioned in post will be stored in the future.
"massive social network" - Facebook Inc.:
In total, 25 Terabytes of user activity data is stored daily by the online social networking service.
"telecommunications conglomerate" - AT&T Inc.:
AT&T reported only has 20,268 servers. This is infantile compared to Google's estimated 1,000,000 servers.
"micro blogging service" - Twitter Inc.:
Twitter recently peaked at 5,000 messages a second following Michael Jackson's death. Odds are one of them was yours.
"social news site" - Digg Inc.:
Digg says that only about half of its server load is from visitors to its website. The other half is a mix of Digg buttons and API calls. This means a non-trivial amount of information that Digg collects is from people who are not even on the Digg domain.
"video provider" - YouTube Inc:
Youtube serves over 1,000,000,000 (billion) views a day. Odds are you are one of them.
"credit card company" - Visa Inc.:
The major credit card companies are now hiring psychologists and statisticians to mine your buying data and figuring out who is a liability.
"a large Redmond based software company" - Microsoft Corporation:
Microsoft is in the process of finishing one of the world's biggest data centers in anticipation of creating the world's first mainstream cloud-based operating system, Microsoft Azure. In Microsoft's eye, the future is in your data. (Google and I agree)
"online retailer" - Amazon.com, Inc.:
Amazon has more 55 million active customer accounts.
"favorite personal finance website" - Mint Software, Inc:
Mint Software was recently bought by Intuit Inc. making its combined collection of personal finance information one of the biggest in the world.
"worldwide shipping company" - United Parcel Service, Inc.:
The United Parcel Service (UPS) can reach more than 4 billion of the earth's 6.3 billion people to which it delivers more than 13.3 million packages each day.
"the pizza company" - Domino's Pizza, Inc
Each of the 40,000 systems in the company's franchises are connected to their global network. Your pizza order is not alone.
Excuse initial flippance: Whilst all this is true and interesting, I can't help but think of how amazingly boring it would be to scrutinise my life.
This of course leaves out financial, medical and other sensitive information. It also assumes that humans actually look at this data, as opposed to that data being used by computers and computers alone. Which raises the question, does it matter whether it's a human or a machine? Is it intrusive no matter what?
Should someone or something else know all this? Probably not. But it also ain't exactly gripping reading, and some of this data logging is, as you say, probably unavoidable if we want to live the way most of us do.
I'm sort of on the fence as to whether or not I care as much as I feel I should.
In a way, the argument breaks into two halves: one, should this information exist to strangers in any way; and two, could it ever be used for nefarious purposes? And what are nefarious purposes? If you can prove via the activity on a Londoner's Oyster card (bus and train pass) that she was in a specific location when a certain event happened, for example, is that ovely intrusive? Is the answer to that always circumstantial?
Richard's right--it's no wonder 1984 was set in London, as we're some of the most watched people on earth. This, however, is pretty much hilariously creepy.
I really love UK... thanks for the link to BBC. That news made me laugh a lot (imagining the camaras talking as in a Pixar movie).
@Jane
"I can't help but think of how amazingly boring it would be to scrutinise my life."
Exactly - what poor schmo would want the job of minutely following someone's daily activities (ironic though this comment may be given that's what I've just read).
*Tangent Warning*
Paul Auster wrote an awesome set of stories called The New York Trilogy which touches on some of things being discussed here in a less depressing way than 1984.
*Tangent Danger Ends*
"I can't help but think of how amazingly boring it would be to scrutinise my life."
True, unless someone wants something from you. If you owe someone enough money, it will eventually become worth it for them to track you.
For many dept collectors, this price is about $10,000. https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/17/magazine/17credit-t.html
I am not trying to freak people out, just trying to make them aware.
Danny,
Interesting post here. I was just having a conversation with some of my older coworkers and was talking about our privacy in the future. My take was that we can all kiss any form of privacy goodbye and they disagreed with me because of their technology ignorance. They are stuck in the days of it's my life and only I can make things public knowledge. They forget about their kids posts pictures and other details about their lives online. The future is going to be an interesting place, especially for those who don't understand technology.
I am very careful about protecting the identities of my children, but I guarantee that you could find pictures of them via the messages of people who know people who know me.
Whois alone is enough to scare most. An email from a user, followed up by a 'phone call. A quick whois on the email domain, a glance at Google Maps and I can tell the user that her problem is related to her octagonal outhouse and scare her half to death.
This reminds me of when I was applying for this job at SEOmoz. Not knowing the interview process, I went on Facebook and untagged every picture of myself that I wouldn't want an employer to see.
It turned out to be a huge mistake because now I have no idea where all of the worst pictures of me are on Facebook.
I agree that the most successful ones will likely understand technology but sometimes a healthy dose of ignorance can be bliss.
And now, having met us, you know that those pictures would have actually hepled :)
I did the same thing back in 'ollll Holland :P
PS: that's not some place in MI!! :P
is it 1984? did George Orwell sneak in and use your account to make this post? maybe.
maybe its our fear of devolving control to monolithic corporations.
the only way to avoid the network, is to get off it entirely - something I learnt long ago, as long as you live in this modern world, you leave a footprint.
but thats nothing new, hundreds of years ago people tracked using footprints, they are just digital now.
so in some ways, nothing has changed.
The difference in my mind is that today people don't always realize that they are leaving footprints. This is then combined with the fact that many of our modern footprints will out live us.
It makes for interesting times now and into the future. A lot of uncharted territory.
The 'permanent record' which we were bullied with at school is finally a reality.
"Despite his facial hair, the clerk requests to see his ID."
This is a true story, isn't it, Danny? ;)
Seriously, very interesting if slightly paranoia-inducing morning reading. I think we all have to take more responsibility for our own privacy. The irony in our current culture is that we somehow are simultaneously: (1) paranoid about privacy, (2) flippant about how we act online, and (3) insatiable voyeurs. Look at how much of our TV and internet entertainment essentially involves invading other peoples' privacy. Until we drop this double-standard, we're not going to wake up to the real dangers.
I am 34 and look it. I have thick facial hair at times (I shave it all off every quarter) and I was buying a bottle of wine with two 29 year old friends and was IDed in Waitrose.
It is unfeasable that anyone could imagine that I was under 30, I think it is just done for fun.
That is gratuitous misuse of the till staff's power to ID!
You have to pardon me, Richard - I have an unhealthy obsession with Danny's facial hair :)
It's gotten a little silly here in the States as well. A lot of places have signs saying that they card anyone who looks under 35 (or even under 40 in some places). Then again, at 39, occasionally being carded is good for my ego.
The worst we have (so far) is 'prove 25' I think...
I can vouch for that. You should seem him when I get anywhere near a barber. Instant panic.
In my former life, as a young man, I came back from Bosnia on leave and went, with a friend who is a couple of months older than I am, to rent a video.
The video was a PG, which in the UK meant then that you have to be 15 (Now 12) or have a parent's permission to watch it. I turned up on a Harley Sportster 1200, I was 22 and I was paying with a credit card.
I can see why people might think it flattering, but I quite like being a grown up!
That seems to be the most ironic part about "privacy". Everyone wants it for themselves, but they love to invade other people's when it's interesting. I mean the tabloids, and paparazzi are perfect examples of how we as consumers drive the demand for the invasion of privacy.
Classic example - facebook stalking.
Don't even try and deny you don't do it, everyone likes a cheeky Facebook stalk now and then. But you'd never want someone to be able to stalk up your 'dirt' as it were. It's all about progressive disclosure - just never reveal too much!
Excellent post, Danny! Very true and somewhat scary..
While a lot of that information certainly is helpful for one never forget that it could / has / and will be stolen and used for whatever purpose.
The real problem I see is that you barely have a chance of opting out of all that if you want to live a "normal" western oriented live.
That is exactly how I feel. (Maybe you should be writing the posts instead of me ;-p)
I am not worried about the records right now but I am worried about their potential for causing damage.
/off-topic:
Great post, nice comments, fun tech-stuff to read about, great, brilliant, a must-bookmark, tweet, re-tweet, Digg, etc. , whatever...
DANNY MAN!!! HOW ABOUT THAT GIRL????
Did she text you again? Can something romantic come out of this?
Let's focus on the most important things in life!!! :P
;)
Fascinating take on our privacy (or lack of) Danny!
It's amazing how little there is to give up when you actually look at your day to day life in such detail.
I agree with the sentiments above, I don't think this is as big an issue as people make out. There is (in every generation) an assumption that things are totally different from in the 'old days' and the issues we face are a million miles away from those of even 30 or 40 years ago.
As MOGmartin pointed out though "hundreds of years ago people tracked using footprints, they are just digital now."
What he didn't point out though is that it's highly unlikely anyone (as in a real acutal person compiling all this data about your movements) is tracking you.
Literally... footprints it's almost digital in a literaly sense... (ok, stop joking)
Thank you for this post. The collection of data has been in progress for some time and will continue to grow. I agree that it can be used for good as long as we guard against the possibilities for abuse. To do that there needs to be awareness.
About 5 years ago my daughter was reading George Orwell's "1984" in the car. Just as we drove through the automated toll booth she wanted to double check reality - "This didn't really happen, did it?" It was a great teaching moment as I was able to say no, but we have just been tracked as driving through the toll plaza and every cell phone call, every credit card transaction, and every click on line is tracked. And it could all be abused. But we still have a choice. We could pay cash, talk to people in person, or read a book offline- it just isn't quite as convenient.
I enjoyed that anecdote. Thank you :-)
Yes, you could read a book offline, but where are you getting that book from? The bookstore, the library (with your library card), or some place else. Living completely offline I think has gone away, as there is almost nothing you can do and still be involved in society that some part is not "tracked".
This used to be my thing before I needed to be invovled in the real world to earn money and could dedicate myself to a cause with no real thought.
Medical records and the level of access to them along with database merging is just scary:
https://www.nhscarerecords.nhs.uk/
That will scare anyone in their right mind to death
Open sourcing my life has been a fantastic experience. The key is in making sure that the person you are matches the person you want to be.
Dear Danny,
what you described is the worst distopic nightmare a sci-fi novelist could have imagined. But "the future is now", as the claim of the Coen's "Mr. Hula Hop" movie.
What you show is something that - as you say - goes far over the SEO stuff. It's about how much we want to give off of our freedom and privacy in order to live - theoratically - a more confortable life.
Cameras... when they aren't people argue about lack of public security.
Data mining is - theorically - justified so big COs can offer a better and personalised service.
Data storage is our delegation to others to save our "memories".
The problem is regulation. Honestly I don't know that much the privacy legislation there in the USA, but - at least in EU (European Community) they are quite severe. For instance in Spain, where I live, is an obligation of any company that ask for personal datas to store them in a secured system and to obey to an ad hoc law that defends quite well the consumer.
Just to make a little example in the 'audiovisual' field, an extremely absurd one, but that can explain the situation here: some months ago the residents of a central street of Madrid were complaining of the prostitutes doing their old job 24/7 just outside their door. They sent the security tape showing this to all the tv station. The result? They were judged and had to pay a fee because they used a recorded image far behind of their intended use by law, violating the privacy of the prostitutes.
Well... that's all folk.
post scriptum: the fact is that we are living with quite indifference in a "Neuromancer" world.
What can I say? In a way, this all sounds creepy. In a totally different way, I'm not afraid of it at all. Be a good person, and it shouldn't be a problem.
Even if the "Don't be evil"-corperation (Yes, that would be Google) somehow connected all the nodes between the different way of breaching privacy policy, I still wouldn't worry to much about it. They would have data on billions of people and there is no way possible for them to actually spend their day watching what I was doing. And what would happen if they actually did and happened to someone make it public that they've trespassed my private policy lines? I would tell the media and hopefully someone would hit Google with some kind of law.
What's the take-away from this story? Don't date anyone working with Google.
My first question as I read this is how do I "Disappear" should the need ever arise... Seems to me it would be pretty dag on hard these days. Grab the cash under the mattress and head the the Smokey Mountains I guess.
I really like this post as it truly lays out how many different ways a person can be tracked, there were a few that I didn't think of. NOW back to plotting my evil deeds
How?
Numerous ways that we're familiar with!
Duplicate Content - whilst an offence in many countries - duplicate your identity with different identities etc. + multiple identities. You could even bring in Amazon mechanical turk...
Also - you know high end printers were withdrawn from PCworld as they could forge biometric passports...
Good Call, the good ole Identy Theft method (which is even easier now and days through online hacking) also it is something Organized Crime Networks are really getting into as they too turn to the great opportunities that exist Online...
https://www.ted.com/talks/misha_glenny_investigates_global_crime_networks.html
I hear that there may also be some printers that might be able to <cough> print other officials docs...
As a side note, many printers still print their serial number on every document they print in a "secret format". https://w2.eff.org/Privacy/printers/docucolor/ Just some more food for thought.
<quote>Don't date anyone working with Google. </quote>
LOL! That's the funniest remark (yet true!) from you I've ever read here! I know a girl that used to date big 'olll Larry (Big G Larry / Lawrence); didn't have a positive influence on her SERPs so I guess you're right Kenneth! :P
Haha, really? I would love to see a case study backing up that statement! :)
Great idea Kenneth!
But an N=1 case study is way under our level, of course... And since she only had one single-URL website, the only solution for us is to create a great new community website perhaps called 'Date-some-or-better-yet-a-whole-lot-of-googlers-and-see-what-your-serps-ll-do.com' !!! This domain actually still is available, shall we go for it in a mutual effort??? :P
Crazy information, for a good read try out "Daemon" by Daniel Suarez, its a great book, and if i understand correctly 100% posible with todays tech. Not that it would but it could happen just with the systems we have in place now.
As a side note, Happy Guy Fawkes Day tomorrow!
Danny,
This has to be one of the cleverest and most enjoyable posts I have read in a while. I loved the style in which you enlightened us on a reality most of us are unaware of...
Well done mate!
Brendon
I for one welcome our new Big Brother overlords. ;)
Geez, apparently SEOmoz commenters don't recognize a Simpsons meme when they see one.
You are getting a harsh thumbing on here - rough.
The ass kissing is over now that I don't work here any more! :P
I can think of no response to this which is not hugely inappropriate, so I shall keep my own council.
You're so gonna get Bullock'd
It is too easy to find someone's digital footprint. I met a flatmate through Gumtree when I had relocated to a new town and the first thing that she did was look me up on facebook. Once she found out my Facebook ID, she was able to look up everything from music that I like to photos that I had posted online. It even led her to my blog, which she read.
Despite this "invasion of privacy" (is it?) we got along famously and are now best of friends. Her digital footprint wasn't nearly as wide as mine- I could barely find anything out about her, despite her very uncommon last name.
But we both looked for each other and the thing that I often pondered (even as I signed up for a SEOMoz account) was whether to diversify my handles to leave a trickier trail- but what's the point, really?
That's why Facebook had to change all its privacy section. The problem is that people usually doesn't even know that exist methods in order to not show off everything online....
One sneaky thing that Facebook does/did was change your privacy network when you jump networks. I moved overseas last year and that is how my flatmate was able to see my details, which were previously private until I had switched networks. Not sure if it is still like that though.
Love this post. But it totally freaked me out. It's easier not to think about the lack of privacy in today's world, because, as you mention, a lot if it comes in ways that have nothing to do with anything we do or don't actively choose to involve ourselves in.
There is indeed some scary stuff available out there, eg. TFL (London's metro system) has swipe cards, those register all journeys on a central database, and they even have them linked to bankcards - now imagine having a centralised database of your purchase history offline, your purchase history online (credit cards offer better safety shopping online), your credit rating AND your travel itinerary.
On the flip side - these vast volumes of data do make it difficult to be a threat to people in some ways - only in high profile cases would they go down to the minute degree, and the people that warrant these cases often follow methods that bypass all those above.
Looking at Iraq and IED's has shown how pattern analysis and data mining is something govt's are using to great effect, and this will progress, lets just hope for the greater good.
I hate being watched and the idea that having nothing to hide means that I should not worry is absurd - I like having some privacy.
You Usonians have it easy though. Just one London borough has more CCTV cameras than the whole of Boston, Johannesburg and Dublin combined.
[EDIT: I could not spell London correctly, it seems. (TWICE!)]
I think the concept of privacy in the online era is fascinating. In a sense, it's like everyone in the world now lives in a small town - it's possible for anyone to dig up your "dirt" and share it with everyone you know. As a result, you always have to live as the person you want others to see you as.
I think it could fundamentally be a good thing, so long as access to all that data remains open. The problem with the collection of all this information is that so much of it is locked away and used for who knows what. If I'm putting my information into your system, consciously or not, I should be able to get it back out again for my own use.
Danny,
The story of your day is well written, but your conclusion seems to be that since the noose is already around our necks we may as well finish tightening it and hang ourselves.
None of the records you listed are used to save you from lethal injections. They don't do you any good at all. Yes, copies of your information are bountiful and limitless. They are used legally to waste your time and attention with advertising offers. In the wrong hands those copies are used illegally to send you spam, spy on you, steal your identity and steal your work without attribution. Perhaps in the future those currently illegal uses will become legal due to lobbying or radical legislation.
Now, I am not saying you have to draw the conclusion I usually draw, but these are points you should have worked through in your article. Since you have studied the methods and implications of corporate and government collection of our personal data for so long, I am surprised that your analysis was not more nuanced and thoughtful.
Good point. I was unclear with my conclusion.
I am making the choice to open source my life but I am not advocating or asking anyone else to.
I think people should be able to do whatever they want with their personal data. (even if it means opting out)
I beleive the first step to making people responsible for their own data is to make them aware.
That was my point with this article. I just want to make people think.
Got it. Thanks for replying to my rambling thoughts!
I enjoyed this!
Danny, when are you going to write your novel? You could, you know.
Its about a balance between customer relationship management and taking the piss for lack of a better term.
I have just called the garage because I need to get something looked at on the car and was told that its due a service in 2 weeks and I might as well book it in. This kind of thing is useful and comes about because they store your data in a way they can use that is useful, if they were to then sell this data to a 3rd party or make it available to another I would feel less secure.
Its amazing when you stop and think about all of the information we freely give for the world to see.
"Later, after finishing a long day at work, he stops by his local grocery store to pick up a six pack of beer." I think I know this guy :) I must agree that we already don't have the privacy we think we do.
Really good, and interesting post Danny. Nice work!
I am both for and against the volume of tracking and data that is stored about us. I'm for it because the world is slowly turning into a cess pool full of horrible people and unfortunately we need technology, surveilance, and good old tracking to try and rid these people from society or at least minimise their opportunity to cause harm to others.
Im against it from the point of view that I know data gets lost or stolen and canbe used to cause harm. Also from the point of view that if I had kids I would be concerned about those photographs being online. Its sick, but lets be realistic the internet is the play ground of peedos!
I am always god smacked by the irresponsibility of people who post pictures of their young children on the internet.
Nice Danny ..thank you..... just like anyone i still treasure my privacey ..it can be so irritating to be at anyone's scrutiny.......but with the advent of new technology , you cane even never tell if your privacy is already invaded.
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One word, and one word only:
WOW.
we live in a digital world?
This is trippy. Cool article.