This comment probably won't go down well considering the audience ... but here goes:
Yes the internet is a surveillance state ... and that is terrible ... except ... except ... is it?
My long held belief is that in an age where even the most tech-savvy cannot possibly remain anonymous all the time our best hope for privacy is in the simply overwhelming volume of data being collected. Unless I do something worthy of government attention I have reason to believe no human is going to closely examine my gmail - why on earth would they?
Therefore the only breach of privacy is by a parser collecting information for an algorithm. So I get a few ads in gmail ... 90% of the time I ignore them ... the other 10% of the time I would MUCH rather they were targeted at my interests than just meaningless drivel! Furthermore - if the ad revenue collected by these companies allows them to continue to improve a free service I love then power to them! People bitch about ads, without considering the reality that without them most of the service we value which make up the internet would not exist without them. You can't always have your cake and eat it.
Lastly I would like to address the point of privacy invasion by a government body. This is nothing new! It has just become easier. I live in the UK - a tiny island with 4,000,000 CCTV cameras. There is probably an accumulation of hundreds of hours of footage of me throughout my life... So What ?! I have done nothing wrong, and if the existence of that footage allows the prevention or solving of even one crime then I'm all for it.
If a government body wants your data - the chances are they are going to get it. Through warrant or some other means. The acceleration of this process is not necessarily a bad thing. They are, after all, the elected officials.
i agree with you about how nice it is to have targeted ads (although Google still hasn't gotten good enough that I have ever clicked on anything).
The dangers for the government are when it uses its powers to stay elected (Nixon), or spy on activists (Nixon, Bush), or pilfer the IP of other countries (Airbus). And of course these dangers also apply to commercial enterprises - if I were a MS competitor, I sure as heck wouldn't allow Skype in the office.
Yes the internet is a surveillance state ... and that is terrible ... except ... except ... is it?
My long held belief is that in an age where even the most tech-savvy cannot possibly remain anonymous all the time our best hope for privacy is in the simply overwhelming volume of data being collected. Unless I do something worthy of government attention I have reason to believe no human is going to closely examine my gmail - why on earth would they?
Therefore the only breach of privacy is by a parser collecting information for an algorithm. So I get a few ads in gmail ... 90% of the time I ignore them ... the other 10% of the time I would MUCH rather they were targeted at my interests than just meaningless drivel! Furthermore - if the ad revenue collected by these companies allows them to continue to improve a free service I love then power to them! People bitch about ads, without considering the reality that without them most of the service we value which make up the internet would not exist without them. You can't always have your cake and eat it.
Lastly I would like to address the point of privacy invasion by a government body. This is nothing new! It has just become easier. I live in the UK - a tiny island with 4,000,000 CCTV cameras. There is probably an accumulation of hundreds of hours of footage of me throughout my life... So What ?! I have done nothing wrong, and if the existence of that footage allows the prevention or solving of even one crime then I'm all for it.
If a government body wants your data - the chances are they are going to get it. Through warrant or some other means. The acceleration of this process is not necessarily a bad thing. They are, after all, the elected officials.
Anyway /rant (... runs and hides)