Google & The Technocrats

[tricky lugnuts]

I understand that the Internet and World Wide Web have done some great things for human society (thank you DodgeCharger.com), and I'm not trying to come across as a paranoid (what, multinational corporations don't have our best interests at heart?) but does anybody else think, from time to time, that this whole digital age we're entering promises to be a potentially horrible adventure in control and surveillance, a worldwide panopticon, if you will?

Here we have the CEO of Google - which encourages people to not be evil, even as it censors search results in China as ordered by the Communist Party - saying he sees young people, who are nowadays hooked on the Internet, social networking, and electronic gadgets from day one, one day having to change their names to escape their past indiscretions, all of which will have been recorded online for the world to see.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704901104575423294099527212.html

Towns and cities here in America are using Google Earth to make sure people are getting their building permits. Greece used Google Earth to count the number of pools in the country to bust tax cheats. Security cameras are up everywhere. New drivers licenses require facial recognition capable digital photos. People charged with felonies or certain misdemeanors in Ohio - charged mind you, not convicted - now have to turn over a DNA sample. If all this is not Big Brother, please tell me what it is. All I'm saying is that this world is getting weirder and weirder and scarier and scarier faster and faster, and I'm thinking about deleting my Gmail account.

[stripedelete]

Don't forget you cannot activate a non-GPS cell phone.

I don't consider myself paranoid.  I didn't buy a generator for Y2K and I don't have an AK47 buried in my back yard.  But, my personal email is an alias and I don't research medical conditions from my IP address.

It is very scary!

Always remember "Just because you're paraniod, doesn't mean people aren't out to get you"

[RD]

I have always said I was born in the wrong century.. 1800's would have been more my speed.. but then my charger would be a horse and not a mopar

[MoparManJim]

I have always said I was born in the wrong century.. 1800's would have been more my speed.. but then my charger would be a horse and not a mopar

On that note, RD, have you ever notice what mopar is back wards? rapom.   

[RD]

On that note, RD, have you ever notice what mopar is back wards? rapom.   

jim.... do not take this the wrong way mate, but your noggin must work in a way that is different from mine cuz sometimes I have a hard time following what you are saying.  not trying to be mean, just stating a fact that you confuse me sometimes.  but,... on that note.

here is your rapom:
http://www.autoblog.com/2007/01/25/rapom-v8-bike-produces-1-200-horsepower-and-loose-bowels/

[Mike DC]

   
The Patriot Act was allowed to happen = we don't care about our privacy rights

[bakerhillpins]

   
The Patriot Act was allowed to happen = we don't care about our privacy rights

Sad but true. It makes me shudder when I hear people say "If you didn't do anything wrong then you don't have anything to worry about."   

People who never learn history are doomed to repeat it. Problem is there are so many of them that they are taking me down with them.

[ipstrategies]

Paranoia no.. common sense yes.
I am a web programmer and am amazed at how it has evolved the past 15 years.
Google loves everyone to use them for everything it is easier that way, and people are learning that it is a lot harder to (forget things that were tweeted, texted chatted emailed etc as once it is out there it is out there.

I think the internet is the best thing... well since "The Charger" what i hate is the data that is being collected and stored about this and all the other activity  we all do on the net.

[Brock Samson]

 NPR just did a show on how all this collected and processed info is being auctioned on online auctions...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129298003&ft=1&f=13

[John_Kunkel]

The Patriot Act was allowed to happen = we don't care about our privacy rights

What could "we the people" have done to prevent it?

[Mike DC]

What could "we the people" have done to prevent it?

We could have been so vehemently opposed to it that they wouldn't think they could get away with it.  Politicians won't do something if it becomes clear enough that doing it equals career suicide.  If we couldn't get the last pres to repeal it (and remember he was re-elected once) then we could have demanded the next one do so as a condition of being elected. 


We actually could prevent them from passing a law requiring that we all learn Spanish, for example.  Never mind the technical legal issues of it, the public outcry would be too much. 

 

[Brock Samson]

  http://www.wimp.com/firstamendment/
So, OK, who wants to be the first to bad mouth Al?.. 

[Troy]

  http://www.wimp.com/firstamendment/
So, OK, who wants to be the first to bad mouth Al?.. 

The "progressives" created the internet? I understand what he's saying but I could pick apart nearly all of it. If we pin the blame on the "mega corporations" then the government can do what they want with less scrutiny. Welcome to China!

Troy

[Brock Samson]

if you walk down my street you WILL think your in China, even the billboards and store signs are in Chinese.   
these guys are worried about the mexicans?.. Oh please... 

[Tilar]

What could "we the people" have done to prevent it?

We could have been so vehemently opposed to it that they wouldn't think they could get away with it.  Politicians won't do something if it becomes clear enough that doing it equals career suicide.

You can see this happening today with so many democrat politicians wanting to repeal obamacare because they know their neck is in a noose. Maybe the pied piper lied to them too.

[elacruze]

What could "we the people" have done to prevent it?

We could have been so vehemently opposed to it that they wouldn't think they could get away with it.  Politicians won't do something if it becomes clear enough that doing it equals career suicide.

You can see this happening today with so many democrat politicians wanting to repeal obamacare because they know their neck is in a noose. Maybe the pied piper lied to them too.

It's called the 'Law of Unintended Consequenses'. Simply the results of either not thinking something through, or not trying to. Sometimes things are too complex to predict outcomes, such as weather and politics.

[tricky lugnuts]

If I'm not mistaken, Obama ran pledging to repeal some of the most controversial aspects of the Patriot Act - then he voted to reauthorize it once he was in office. Not a big surprise. I guess a "powerful executive office" is something that most presidents campaign against, then come to appreciate as long as they're filling that role. Once the power is given, it is not given back - not unless heads roll like during the French Revolution or something like that. But in this day and age, it seems like people voting - sensibly - would be quite a revolutionary accomplishment.

Per the Internet, this is more what I'm thinking about:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Shield_Project

If you're not taking China seriously yet, it's probably time to start. Massive landmass. World's second biggest economy. Manufacturing center for the U.S. and much of Europe. Loads of natural resources that Japan could only ever dream of. A massive population that could become the world's largest consumer economy - could being the key word at this point.

Here's an extremely interesting, and somewhat terrifying article Naomi Klein wrote for Rolling Stone a while ago about the amazing surveillance state that is alive and well in China and ready for export to the rest of the world:

http://www.naomiklein.org/articles/2008/05/chinas-all-seeing-eye

The Wall Street Journal has also done some interesting reporting lately on tracking technology being found everywhere on the Internet. Here's a story about a lawsuit against some pretty big companies - ABC, NBC - for installing "respawning" tracking cookies that reappear on users computers even after they are deleted:

http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/07/30/lawsuit-tackles-files-that-re-spawn-tracking-cookies/

All I'm saying is: The Internet is a fantastic tool for all sorts of things. It's also nothing like it was back in 1999. It's a perfect medium for everything we do, everything we say, everywhere we go, everything we buy, etc. to be tracked and stored, for advertising purposes, for political purposes, for criminal purposes, you name it. In school, our professor once asked us why anyone would want credit and debit to completely replace cash in the U.S. economy. I raised my hand and said, "so they can see exactly what you bought, where bought it, and when you bought it." He said, "exactly." It's kind of like that, but on a much grander scale. 

[Todd Wilson]

I have always said I was born in the wrong century.. 1800's would have been more my speed.. but then my charger would be a horse and not a mopar

A Mustang! HAHA!


Todd

[Brock Samson]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/07/privacy-lawsuit-targets-net-giants-over-zombie-cookies.ars
   excerpt:
"A wide swath of the 'Net's top websites, including MTV, ESPN, MySpace, Hulu, ABC, NBC and Scribd, were sued in federal court Friday on the grounds they violated federal computer intrusion law by secretly using storage in Adobe's Flash player to recreate cookies deleted by users.

At issue is technology from Quantcast, also targeted in the lawsuit. Quantcast created Flash cookies that track users across the Web, and used them to recreate traditional browser cookies that users deleted from their computers. These "zombie" cookies came to light last year, after researchers at UC Berkeley documented deleted browser cookies returning to life. Quantcast quickly fixed the issue, calling it an unintended consequence of trying to measure Web traffic accurately"

[Mike DC]

    

Quantcast quickly fixed the issue, calling it an unintended consequence of trying to measure Web traffic accurately."

LOL