Big Data, meet Big Brother

Pioneer Press/Boston Globe ^ | 5-19-14 | John Sununu

[TurboZamboni]

In the dystopian future of George Orwell's "1984," the government uses an endless state of war to justify food rationing by the Ministry of Plenty, rewriting history by the Ministry of Truth, and brutal interrogation by the Ministry of Love. Recently, President Obama's Privacy Working Group -- a response to the public outcry over the mass collection of telephone data -- concluded that the government needed to collect and review more private data. It's tempting to think, "you couldn't make this up." But, of course, Orwell imagined it in detail.

The working group's report contains several mundane policy recommendations to update laws dealing with data, email, and digital records. But the boldest stroke, and the one pushed hardest by chairman John Podesta, posits that private data collection could lead "intentionally or inadvertently -- to discriminatory outcomes." Without citing any specific case or allegation, the group calls upon federal agencies to "develop a plan for investigating" collectors and purveyors of digital information.

Big Data, meet Big Brother.

Setting aside the formal jargon of a government report, it represents a shot across the bow of every Internet firm from Amazon to Zappos, not to mention banks, credit card, and phone companies. Remember that call Mark Zuckerberg made to President Obama to complain about National Security Agency surveillance? This is the reply: Play ball, or face the consequences.

[TurboZamboni]

[Jack Hydrazine]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon

[maine-iac7]

time to go back to old fashioned letter writing - wih the 'real' message written in milk or lemon juice - the recipient runs a match flame under it and it turns brown for reading :)

OR

spɹɐʍʞɔɐq puɐ uʍop ǝpᴉsdn ǝdʎʇ ɹo