Paul, our laws definitely are not keeping up with technology.
That may not be a bad thing, in that I think we are over-lawed as a society, anyway. But, the only privacy things that tend to get legislated come after a tragedy, like cyber-bullying that leads to suicide.
One of the hidden technological impacts and laws, I believe, relates to patents. Companies have had to create intellectual property protection departments to combat the trolls who spend their time looking for patent holes and litigating for damages.
..I would argue that there is no privacy. I sometimes take the time to google myself..and the hits that comes back for me--an ordinary face in the crowd--is scary. If someone wants to find you, they will--and we need to be really scared about it.
Beyond the privacy issue of the GPS chip, my biggest issue with that is that, one way or another, you paid for the chip and the tracking service.
It's akin to the Mortgage Insurance Premium charged to home buyers, yet that mortgage insurance didn't in any way prevent the meltdown after the buyers foreclosed.
I do think people become desensitized to all of this, and it goes beyond tech privacy, but really freedom. We just have a gradual creep that encroaches "rights," so that it doesn't seem unusual to most.
I am more scared of webcams than apps, sites, or companies that collect data. The Pennsylvania school district that spied on students who used the schools' laptops only cemented that fear (In 2010 the district surreptitiously snapped thousands of pics of kids at home). I told my daughter to always close her laptop at night and to never change in front of it... maybe I'm paranoid but what the heck!
As 'spying' becomes easier to do, we'll all see some our privacy taken advantage of. And as we all become more used to collection of data from our purchases, and internet behavior, there's going to be little left that's private in a decade.
Whether companies will be able to profit from the minutia is another matter. Just because it's easy to collect the data, doesn't necessarily mean it will make money for anyone.
Good point Bolingbroke, and as if often the case with a supposed "natural right" it's by no means always clear where the dividing lines are between some right we hold absolutely, the rights created by law, and rights we just assume as part of everyday etiquette.
The ThinkerNet does not reflect the views of TechWeb. The ThinkerNet is an informal means of communication to members and visitors of the Internet Evolution site. Individual authors are chosen by Internet Evolution to blog. Neither Internet Evolution nor TechWeb assume responsibility for comments, claims, or opinions made by authors and ThinkerNet bloggers. They are no substitute for your own research and should not be relied upon for trading or any other purpose.
Social networking sites and search engines continue to hone the tools they use to help advertisers spread their messages, measure results, and avoid fraud.
The US National Security Agency learned the hard way that it can be dangerous to give a contractor too much money and access, with too little scrutiny. The NSA and other government agencies hire tens of thousands of contractors
a year to analyze data. Edward Snowden -- who revealed himself as the NSA leaker after fleeing the country -- was one such contractor, reportedly holding a $122,000 salaried position at Booz Allen Hamilton at the time of his departure.
Big-data and analytics tools enable marketers to understand customers as individuals, identifying unmet needs and addressing each customer as a "segment of one," says John Kennedy, VP corporate marketing, IBM.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The IBM Smarter Commerce Global Summit in Monaco kicked into high gear today, and we've already begun to see news emerging from that lovely city-state by the sea.
Expert Integrated Systems: Changing the Experience & Economics of IT In this e-book, we take an in-depth look at these expert integrated systems -- what they are, how they work, and how they have the potential to help CIOs achieve dramatic savings while restoring IT's role as business innovator. READ THIS eBOOK
your weekly update of news, analysis, and
opinion from Internet Evolution - FREE! REGISTER HERE
Wanted! Site Moderators Internet Evolution is looking for a handful of readers to help moderate the message boards on our site – as well as engaging in high-IQ conversation with the industry mavens on our thinkerNet blogosphere. The job comes with various perks, bags of kudos, and GIANT bragging rights. Interested?
To save this item to your list of favorite Internet Evolution content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
