Does This Concern You?

 

 

New York plans to install vast system of facial recognition cameras that matches drivers licenses to social media accounts at bridges and tunnels.

Facebook already has face tagging and Check In feature. Can you imagine the opportunity for  Snapchat?

As Eli Pariser writes in the book The Filter Bubble (highly recommended), "the ability to search by face will shatter many of our cultural illusions about privacy and anonymity"

Here is what is REALLY scary?

A while ago Facebook cut a deal with political website Politico that allows the independent site machine-access to Facebook users' messages, both public and private. 

Facebook already bought WhatsApp for $19B, Will they buy SnapChat before they go public?

As soon as Facebook finds a way to tie in commerce to the platform, it's game over.

I can't help thinking this has gotten out of control.  How did this get so bad so quick?

Those "Privacy Policy" pages that are never read, have created such lasting damage.

So how do we stop it?  

The Next Big Thing is Privacy. Stuart Langridge has the right idea.

Privacy will define the next major change in computing.

The way you beat an incumbent is by coming up with a thing that people want, that you do, and that your competitors can’t do. Not won’t. Can’t.

How do you beat Google and Facebook? 

By inventing a thing that they can’t compete against. By making privacy your core goal. Because companies who have built their whole business model on monetising your personal information cannot compete against that. They’d have to give up on everything that they are, which they can’t do. Facebook altering itself to ensure privacy for its users… wouldn’t exist. Can’t exist.

The company who works out how to convince people that privacy is important will define the next five years of technology. (source)

Mainframe, PC, Cloud Computing..what is next?  Private Computing? A Private Internet?

The technological advances we have made just in the last 5 years makes me think that it is possible to get back our privacy. It will happen when people have their own data used against themselves.

When one day they wake up and say "How did they know that?".  That's the "A Ha!" moment.

Watch the TV show The Hunted, to see how public you really are.

Big problems lead to Big Solutions.

 

What Happens With The Death Of Cash?

The days of cash being accepted as legal tender are quickly coming to an end. Within a decade, cash will be dead.

Have you ever given thought to the ramifications to this?

What happens when cash is no longer accepted as a form of payment? When you are forced to use digital currency to make ANY type of payment say good bye to your last bit of privacy.

When Chase Bank started their new "Cash Policy", it started a wave that will soon eliminate the last bit of privacy consumers have.

Think of all of the people and consumer items affected.

Buying items that you don't want, or can't have identified on your credit card, will be gone. (from embarrassing drug store items to those funny cigarettes). 

People that make a living, and unreported income, will soon have their income reported and be on the grid. From hairdressers, valets to people that sell illegal goods.

More income will HAVE TO BE reported. (as a side note another reason why marijuana should be legalized).

What about the really bad drugs? What happens to that industry when cash is dead? Does it help or hurt that industry? How about unregistered guns that are sold? Or stolen items?


Surveillance cameras watch you, postal service scans your mail, credit card companies track your purchases, cellphone towers can locate you and cookies from surfing let ISPs, websites and domains follow your EVERY move.

Cash is the one last form of privacy consumers have..and soon it will be gone.

You Do Realize You're On The Same Team Right?

We can learn a lot from the Packers Falcons game, and almost any football game in general,  about how to win.

The teams all wear the same color uniform . There isn't a different color or notation for the defense or offense players.

When a defensive player intercepts a pass, the defensive player doesn't stop, he tries to help the team by running it back for a score...even though he is a defensive player.

When the quarterback throws an interception, the offensive players try to stop the opposing player from running it back for a score.

Their instinct is in helping the team.

Each player on the TEAM does what is best for the team, not for their "party".

Why can't the "players" on the U.S Team do the same?

My suggestion for Congress:

Forget the idea of a third party, GET RID OF ALL PARTIES. The members in Congress all wear the same color jersey, so stop with the classification.

A touchdown scored by a running back or a safety is good for the team, regardless who scores it.

I would suggest that Congress offer a way for members to submit their ideas anonymously.  Members would then vote on just the idea, not on who or what party it came from.

A bird has a left and right wing. It can only fly when both wings work together.

The Privacy Wave Is Coming..Get Ready For A VPB Virtual Private Browser

ISPs, domains and even your own device track you while you surf. This EU Proposal is a good start but there are much better ways coming to maintain privacy online.

Combine the cloud (isolate your device) with a "disposable browser", and then you have complete privacy ans security online.

You've hear of a VP, a virtual private network which has 3 major drawbacks (1. cookies, viruses, trackers still are used/exposed to users, 2 a VPN leaves history on your device 3. encryption slows down your surfing.

The solution will be a VPB..a virtual private browser.

EU privacy proposal could dent Facebook, Gmail ad revenue.

 web companies would have to guarantee the confidentiality of their customers' conversations and get their consent before tracking them online to target them with personalized advertisements

email services such as Gmail and Hotmail will not be able to scan customers' emails to serve them with targeted advertisements without getting their explicit agreement

The proposal will also require web browsers to ask users upon installation whether they want to allow websites to place cookies on their browsers to deliver personalized advertisements.

 

Data And Goliath..A Great Read

Bruce Schneier's Data and Goliath is a great read for anyone that is interested on the many ways your behavior (online and offline) is being monitored and being used for and and against you.

The days of "I want off the gird" are coming soon. The ability to have "privacy on a public network" is a very big idea.

Data and Goliath The Hidden Battles to Collect Your Data and Control Your World