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from the I-wonder-if-they-track-sales-of-tin-foil? dept.
http://www.cio.com/article/2977027/intel-reveals-big-datas-dirty-little-secret.html
The article is entitled "Intel reveals big data's dirty little secret" but I read it a little bit differently.
From the article: "Companies are spending billions on tools and engineering to analyse big data, though many are hampered by one little problem: they still don't know what to do with all the data they collect."
This means that, of all the egregious breaches of personal privacy that companies regularly perform (the Target-knows-you're-pregnant-when-your-parents-don't story comes to mind), they have still only scratched the surface of making sense of your information, and using it effectively. Which means that, as Big Data gets people who actually know what they're doing, the more frightening the possibilities become, which is probably only a matter of time.
How would you feel about getting a bunch of targeted spam from divorce lawyers because your wife/husband's personal details were in the big Ashley Madison data leak, before you even heard about it? What if you were the guy who got drunk and put a profile up one time after a big fight but never followed up on it? This is why I don't have a Facebook account.
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Interesting) by naubol on Saturday August 29 2015, @04:32PM
Every time these stories come out, we get scenarios designed to appeal to our passions and our prejudices that are cynical in nature. Not only that, but they're unimaginative, because it could be so much worse than that. Yet, this information could bring about a future with new levels of personal empowerment, higher quality of life, new levels of comfort and individuality,...
We cannot see all the possible sociopolitical futures this technology enables. Our lack of vision necessarily inhibits our ability to respond, so assuming the worst is a recipe for closing off possibility. I'm not advocating not being skeptical, instead I'm suggesting that skepticism unleavened by creative optimism weighs heavy on the stomach.
Let's have some freakin vision.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2015, @05:19PM
> Let's have some freakin vision.
The people who are selling it to the general public are doing a bang-up job with the vision. That's really the problem here, the way this stuff is presented its all upside no downside.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2015, @05:20PM
i see your "vision"and raise you a "surveylion-ision" : ]
(Score: 2) by Gravis on Saturday August 29 2015, @06:16PM
Every time these stories come out, we get scenarios designed to appeal to our passions and our prejudices that are cynical in nature. Not only that, but they're unimaginative, because it could be so much worse than that.
it's seems to me that appeals to realism rather than your personal fantasy of helpful companies.
We cannot see all the possible sociopolitical futures this technology enables. Our lack of vision necessarily inhibits our ability to respond, so assuming the worst is a recipe for closing off possibility.
accurate predictions of the future are based on the past behavior and responses.
I'm not advocating not being skeptical, instead I'm suggesting that skepticism unleavened by creative optimism weighs heavy on the stomach.
this is know as the optimism bias [wikipedia.org] which is a waste of time.
Let's have some freakin vision.
here's some freakin vision: the future will be full of people like the present and the bad people will leverage technology is bad way just like the are doing now and have done in the past.
grow up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2015, @07:13PM
A young german boy had a vision once. I guess all his detractors just were not optimistic enough to see the future of personal empowerment, higher quality of life, and new levels of comfort that would have been possible if they just stayed out of his way.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 29 2015, @08:00PM
ITYM Austrian.
(Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Saturday August 29 2015, @09:12PM
I imagine a future where what you said was possible -- without the future we live in today.
I did not ever think that the CPU horsepower that fits in the palm of our hands -- or cloistered in server rooms or encased in a mainframe -- would require so much sacrifice. We give up so much to get what, webmail in return? To make it so we don't have to memorize a route? To be reminded when a friend's birthday is? To be recommended similar network cables to what I already purchased? How did we live before this time? Where are the miracles that were supposed to happen in exchange for my data? Why is my data being sold to people I actually decided that I did not want to do business with? How do I get my data out of your system prior to its transfer to your new owner that I do not want to do business with and made a point to using a competitor instead?
When I started exercising after seeing pictures of healthy looking people who were not me (it was in a magazine, I am sure), I bought a small spiral bound steno pad -- it was smaller than that. I wrote out the weights and the reps and the sets. I did not need to attach to the internet. I was able to see the weight loss and the muscle gain without having to sign a waiver indicating that my data will be shared with valued partners.
When one place I worked announced that our insurance would go up $150 each unless everyone wore a fitbit, so the goal was to get everyone to wear one and then demonize the holdouts... well. our insurance went up $150. (and it wasn't just me--about half of the company refused--no arguments designed to appeal to our passion and predjudices could encourage us to submit to such tracking. The fact that many of us travelled and we'd be visible on a map was not helpful to get us to save money--privacy has a price, and $150 seemed reasonable to pay).
As far as individuality, this all sounds like a character building experience, and I think I am quite the character as it is. I don't need to give away my most mundane and boring of secrets to help insure my individuality.
I think the argument you should be having is not with us, the consumer, but with those pushing this stuff on us. We have seen how badly abused things can be for a profit, and would like our personal details kept out of it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday August 30 2015, @12:07AM
> When one place I worked announced that our insurance would go up $150 each unless everyone wore a fitbit,
You need to name that place. You can't just put that out there and not hold them up for public accountability.
(Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Sunday August 30 2015, @06:02PM
oh... their word of mouth marketing has lost them numerous customers. I expect it will not be long the before need to plug their holes prior to their inevitable sink to the bottom. It will only be then that their management will get out of the boat they rock daily--but it'd only be to command the others to dig through the rock at the bottom while they all drown. Lack of work/lack of oxygen. Same thing.
They are having issues, and while I would not mind to see their demise, I wouldn't get satisfaction from it -- they have customers that will suffer with them as they sink. I don't expect them to actually get any better (small company, owner dictates what happens, no discussion, any critique is treated as a personal attack).
The owner and his VPs (37% of the company are "senior executive leadership team" members; there are no other executives nor even managers of which to be senior over) all value the advice in the book called The Secret. I think Trump or Oprah suggested it. That's how they find new customers, by willing the universe to them. They were quite surprised that the fitbit thing didn't quite work out... maybe they didn't wish it hard enough. They said they even had a meeting about it, and were surprised people would resist it. When asked why our opinions about such things were not solicited, we were suggested to start our own business if we want to provide advice on how to run one.
Considering the lack of there being much chance for true change from above, I can only hope they lose enough customers due to customers choosing to cease doing business or opting to not renew service contracts, rather than due to the company's questionable business practices and other behaviors.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 31 2015, @07:06AM
Whatevers dude. Nobody gives a fuck about your stories if they can't be connected to a real company. As far as every one else reading your post is concerned it is all a made up story. Instead of writing all that you could have spent the same time masturbating, felt better and not wasted anyone's time.
(Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Sunday August 30 2015, @02:40AM
Your "vision" contradicts history. Power corrupts, and all this data will be used against us. To say otherwise is to ignore history, which is foolish.
Furthermore, any future where my privacy is constantly violated to supposedly give me a "higher quality of life" isn't a future worth living in. We should all fight against that possibility; have some principles.
I'm not advocating not being skeptical, instead I'm suggesting that skepticism unleavened by creative optimism weighs heavy on the stomach.
I have a better plan: Use your brain. Read up on history and all the abuses that corporations and governments committed, and then come back and tell me that this "vision" of yours is even remotely probable.
Let's have some freakin vision.
I'd rather not be a propaganda-spreading tool for giant corporations.
(Score: 2) by etherscythe on Sunday August 30 2015, @01:02PM
I'd like to believe we will someday get to what you are describing. My negative tone is based on my observation that we are on the wrong path for that, specifically, the wrong people are collecting this information right now. We need services and organizations tailored to the needs of the individuals, not the needs of big business. Until that occurs, the problem is only going to get worse.
"Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Monday August 31 2015, @01:24PM
Personally, I've got some grand visions of the future modern and coming technologies could permit.
Unfortunately, more and more I'm finding the future I envision is one I'm gonna have to build for myself. We've got some great stuff in this open source freedom bubble, and if you just string it together you can build some truly amazing technology. But none of it ever seems to go mainstream. Instead we get these crippled, massively monetized corporate garbage heaps.
The future I want to see isn't one based on Facebook, Google, and Microsoft; it's based on Diaspora*, YaCy, and Linux. But people would rather sell their soul to Satan than learn the difference between The Internet and Internet Explorer...