I believe that, for all practical reasons, privacy is nonexistent. As long as we are interested in 'what others do', we will find reasons and ways to feed on it. I believe sharing our state is the most basic of human desires.
The basic reason behind knowing about someone, is to anticipate or predict their course of actions. Whether those actions lead to economic gains, sustaining the overall state of security of society, or at the very least provide an emotional payoff for keeping up with the friends, is open to debate.
While we may agree that lack of privacy is undesirable, several of us promote it through our own contributions. In particular, through our research.
Let's take an example. We have witnessed that letting applications (either running on smartphones, web or an interface of your choice) know of your locations have interesting ramifications.
You get to select a cheaper gas station within your vicinity. You get targeted advertisements based on your locations. They even tell you if any of your friends are nearby, when you are in a neighborhood location. So far so good.
When our location is not private, it enables construction of a context, which can be used to predict several things about us. More importantly, when fused with other forms of data, it leads to even more interesting outcomes.
For example, by knowing your locations over a period of time, it is possible to create a spatial map of your location activity. It will show that you prefer certain locations over the rest. And there will be a good reason behind it.
When this map is combined with time data, it will show your desire to be at certain locations at certain time of the day. Each location has a specific designation, purpose, and a set of actions that you perform. Ergo, knowing a location is a handle to predicting your actions with respect to that location.
When actions can be predicted spatio-temporally, it enables the 'system' to act based on the 'profiles' of people within it. I will not indulge you by painting a bleak Orwellian society.
The only point I make is that - I am one of those who, in part, enable such outcomes through my research. Therefore, from this unique vantage point, I bear and taste the fruits of my own labor. Whether it suffocates or liberates is hard to predict as of now.
The basic reason behind knowing about someone, is to anticipate or predict their course of actions. Whether those actions lead to economic gains, sustaining the overall state of security of society, or at the very least provide an emotional payoff for keeping up with the friends, is open to debate.
While we may agree that lack of privacy is undesirable, several of us promote it through our own contributions. In particular, through our research.
Let's take an example. We have witnessed that letting applications (either running on smartphones, web or an interface of your choice) know of your locations have interesting ramifications.
You get to select a cheaper gas station within your vicinity. You get targeted advertisements based on your locations. They even tell you if any of your friends are nearby, when you are in a neighborhood location. So far so good.
When our location is not private, it enables construction of a context, which can be used to predict several things about us. More importantly, when fused with other forms of data, it leads to even more interesting outcomes.
For example, by knowing your locations over a period of time, it is possible to create a spatial map of your location activity. It will show that you prefer certain locations over the rest. And there will be a good reason behind it.
When this map is combined with time data, it will show your desire to be at certain locations at certain time of the day. Each location has a specific designation, purpose, and a set of actions that you perform. Ergo, knowing a location is a handle to predicting your actions with respect to that location.
When actions can be predicted spatio-temporally, it enables the 'system' to act based on the 'profiles' of people within it. I will not indulge you by painting a bleak Orwellian society.
The only point I make is that - I am one of those who, in part, enable such outcomes through my research. Therefore, from this unique vantage point, I bear and taste the fruits of my own labor. Whether it suffocates or liberates is hard to predict as of now.
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1 comments:
Very well written... I agree with you and one who does share my locations and activities ...would be interesting to see my "map"
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