TECHNOVERSEERS
When your words, actions, habits, location, etc. — when the sum total of social data which makes you you – is given to the control (and whims) of others (or simply taken from your control as a matter of course), you are no longer in any substantive sense free.
Welcome to the future, where everything about you is saved. A future where your actions are recorded, your movements are tracked, and your conversations are no longer ephemeral. A future brought to you not by some 1984-like dystopia, but by the natural tendencies of computers to produce data.
Data is the pollution of the information age. It’s a natural by-product of every computer-mediated interaction. It stays around forever, unless it’s disposed of. It is valuable when reused, but it must be done carefully. Otherwise, its after-effects are toxic.
And just as 100 years ago people ignored pollution in our rush to build the Industrial Age, today we’re ignoring data in our rush to build the Information Age.
[snip]
…Being constantly scrutinised undermines our social norms; furthermore, it’s creepy. Privacy isn’t just about having something to hide; it’s a basic right that has enormous value to democracy, liberty, and our humanity. Source (alternate link)
It’s a price most dear. It’s slavery by default in a digital dimension. It’s a creeping cancer on the concepts of personal space and individuality. It’s a super-highway to (to coin a term) slaveillance.
Slaveillance.
Another masterpiece, voxd.
Comment by Hill — February 28, 2009 @ 2:16 pm on Saturday the 28th