How do we balance technology, privacy and liberty?

Data data everywhere, but not a drop for me

We’re all familiar with being used. We’re used day in and day out.  As an example, you may be aware, Facebook has recently been made a party to a class action law suit for using user data for marketing and advertisements without consent.  This is by no means the beginning of the ways that we’re used every day.  I was once told a phrase which seems to shed light on more and more every day:  “if you’re not paying, you’re the product”.  On-line retailers are consistently using our data.  Selling it off to other people to sell us more junk.  But, you know what?  I’m ok with that.  I voluntarily engaged in these activities.  I had a choice whether or not to use a certain product.  I knew the risks.  Even when it comes to Facebook’s class action, I chose to put my photos in the public domain.  How could I possibly assume otherwise?

But it doesn’t end in the digital realm.  Data collection has begun to have many manifestations in the physical world as well.  I can buy a FitBit to track my workouts.  I can synch MyFitnessPal over the internet with a plethora of exercise apps (not that I’ve seen any progress).  Data is good and more data should be better, right?  As a scientist the answer seems obvious.  More data leads to better informed decisions.  Better products, more open marketplaces, etc.

The problem comes when government steps in.  We lose the aspect of control.  We lose the aspect of voluntary contribution of data to a larger environment.  I know I’ve been subject to the mechanization of the speed cameras and stop light cameras.  It’s almost impossible to traverse DC without being on camera somewhere.  As I bike home from work, I’m informed that my speed is being monitored by aircraft.  As sensors and sensing gets more sophisticated, more and more information is being collected and archived somewhere.  This is a problem of control.  Who am I giving this data to?  Is this data freely available if it’s being collected by a government agency?  The other problem is the expense.  We’re the ones who end up paying for more and more sophisticated monitoring of our every day lives.

Can we come to some middle ground?  Is there a way that we can come to terms with the government creeping into our every nook and cranny?  As a fierce individualist, I can’t quite rationalize it.  As a scientist and entrepreneur, I can, however see one way where I would potentially be okay with data collection: make the data open and freely available.  I’m not saying that we should print peoples names and addresses with their waistline, but to abstract it and make it freely available to the public.  Imagine the possibilities.  Imagine the businesses you could start.  Follow all the data on how people drive, heating and cooling habits, eating habits and start to make some sophisticated correlations.  You could provide valuable services to municipalities to enable net savings in spending.  You could produce better products on what people actually need.  The possibilities are endless.

The only question that remains, then, is if it would be so good for society, why haven’t more private companies stepped in to create distributed networks of sensors?  It’s probably because privacy is so fiercely guarded, the only way it can be taken is by force and the only entity capable of wielding the kind of force necessary is the government.