Should the governement be allowed to use big data or should big data be limited to corporations who want sell us things like potato chips that will lead to our early deaths? I say no, but for different reasons than the ones usaully cited. Remember those privacy statements you agreed to for Apple, Google, Verizon, Foursquare, McDonalds, your carpet cleaner, and soon to be released app, ISpyforFun&Profit? Well now people are shocked, literaly shocked, that the government has gotten in line behind all those corporate clients and knows almost as much about you as Facebook. Speaking of Facebook, why do most of us think so highly of our priviacy that we overshare every burb and fleeting thought, then wonder how companies and the feds know our every burb and fleeting thought?
Remember that story of the poor shelp who was the last to know this 16-year-old daughter was pregnant? The first to know was his local Target which was quick to try and sell her prenatal vitamins. That was Target not Google. The fact the Google know more about me than I do is accepted as a given, afterall they promise to “Do no Evil.” You trust Google, don’t you? I think the time will come soon when I can Google what my own tastes really are. During the last election, the story was how one side used big data to win and how the side is lacking and had to close the big data divide. During the 2004, it was the other way around with Carl Rove bragging about his mad skills with big data.
So if big data genie is out of the bottle, why I am saying we should try to stuff to back in the digital bottle. Simply, I feel for that poor NSA agent that gets my information. Imagine the death by boredom that this poor guy has to goes through. Think of the guy shouting, “NO! NO! Not another online sermon. This Tito guy has to be the most boring guy in the world.” I imagine my files are mark, “for use during bouts of insomnia.” or use for integrations. “I will tell you anything, just stop showing me this guys life.” The reality is that we have long drawn open the digital curtain on our lives, and those who are shocked haven been paying attention to those forms Apple, Facebook and Verizon makes us sign for service or our very real lack of privacy. Like it or not, ths is the world we live in. Heck, I think Target knew it was a boy before even the 16-year old's doctor.
