Courtesy of http://www.hotforwords.com
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Monday, 2 March 2009
To Know is to Control
What are the implications of storing a complete record of your life online?
More than likely, you'll be halfway towards this already. Facebook has your friends. Google has your search history, your emails and your documents. Microsoft has your chat history. Last.fm has your taste in music. Delicious has your interests. Twitter has your random thoughts. And all this is voluntary. Imagine what they may be doing with this data, when it's all brought together, what will it tell them about you? It's no surprise that Google is buying everything.
Of course it's worrying, but I suppose it's not the end of the world if some big corporation has your information. It's not even anything new, credit card companies have been doing it for decades.
The issue now though is that the information mined is more detailed and complete than it's ever been before. And it's all owned by American companies. Companies who, thanks to the patriot act, have to hand over any information the US government asks for.
However, the problem is not what they will do with one person's information. It's what they will do with all of it.
Social control is a relatively simple practice. If the government knows enough about its society, it can play off its fears, play up to its desires, and essentially manipulate the populace with counter-information spread via its mainstream media. It's not a new practice, but it is getting a lot easier for those who hold the information.
If you don't think that this is what really happens, you probably think that Obama's success was real. ;-P
Knowledge truly is power.
More than likely, you'll be halfway towards this already. Facebook has your friends. Google has your search history, your emails and your documents. Microsoft has your chat history. Last.fm has your taste in music. Delicious has your interests. Twitter has your random thoughts. And all this is voluntary. Imagine what they may be doing with this data, when it's all brought together, what will it tell them about you? It's no surprise that Google is buying everything.
Of course it's worrying, but I suppose it's not the end of the world if some big corporation has your information. It's not even anything new, credit card companies have been doing it for decades.
The issue now though is that the information mined is more detailed and complete than it's ever been before. And it's all owned by American companies. Companies who, thanks to the patriot act, have to hand over any information the US government asks for.
However, the problem is not what they will do with one person's information. It's what they will do with all of it.
Social control is a relatively simple practice. If the government knows enough about its society, it can play off its fears, play up to its desires, and essentially manipulate the populace with counter-information spread via its mainstream media. It's not a new practice, but it is getting a lot easier for those who hold the information.
If you don't think that this is what really happens, you probably think that Obama's success was real. ;-P
Knowledge truly is power.
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