[ExI] privacy

[William Flynn Wallace]

Popular topic now - Fbook etc.  Just what do we want?  I'll ask a bunch of
libertarians and the like.

Google has a program that, without exactly invading privacy, can predict
flu epidemics, based on word usage  - headache, fever, etc. appearing in
emails.   If these words appear far more frequently in a place than is
usual, the Center for Disease Control could be contacted and informed of a
possible epidemic.   I say this is highly useful data.  We could use a lot
more of it for medical purposes, if nothing else.

People are going to get targeted for ads, whether through Fbook likes or
something else (massive data in Amazon about who buys what).  Hey!  It's
capitalism in action.  Companies that support the TV programs, web sites,
and so on are not doing out of kindness and generosity.

If insurance companies get our health records, there will be hell to pay -
right?  So we don't want that, unless someone is keeping a foot on the
companies' throats.  Meaning not now.

But it seems to me that I really don't want privacy except for health
matters, and mostly not even that, if my data can help others' health in
some way.  What will happen?  I will  get ads that are more like what I
might want.  Now I get ads trying to sell me things I have already bought -
hardly a good thing from the ad placer's point of view.

So, some kind of compromise is needed here.  Total privacy will make goods
and services more costly because the companies won't have the data to more
correctly target consumers.

Maybe there could be some national web site where I could go and tell
advertisers what I do and do not want.  I am never going to buy a new car -
ever.  So don't waste your ads on me.  It does cost them, right? Sending
ads to people who won't use them drives up the prices of goods and services.

The implications are far and wide and I have covered only a few.  I say
that there can be, as in the Google example above, valid and reasonable
uses of consumer data, and we should act to put regulations in place so
that there is a fair amount of data sharing and a fair amount of privacy.

Once it can be shown that forgoing some privacy helps millions of people
and /or lowers consumer prices, I think people will  share some things.

OK, guys and dolls - unpack this and hack it.

bill w
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.extropy.org/pipermail/extropy-chat/attachments/20180325/45776ca2/attachment.html>