Electronic ID is already here
While reading this article on creating a more tasteful MySpace page, it occurs to me that all these social networks online provide so much aggragate data on an individual and his or her habits and influences that it seems to me that electronic ID tagging and profiling of everyone (the kind that gets everyone all hot and sweaty when governments suggest their introduction) is already upon us. And it raises millions.
Interesting story here (CNN via AmyLoo) that shows a person's blog led the police to find a dead body in his bedroom cupboard.
The future is certainly going to be interesting with respect to our identities and profiles – and the multitude of ways that people can (already) feed, splice, dice, mix and mash that data through all sorts of interesting algorithms.
Between the automated bridge/road toll systems, the supermarket loyalty programs, and their credit card data (all aggregated by one of several “data providers”), privacy went out the window ten years ago. Is this a bad thing?
It’s a mixed blessing. We certainly need better governance but it doesn’t have to be a big hassle and, since we’ll be fighting to get something we gave away back, we’ll need to be sensitive to helping THEM protect the core values they’ve invested in (unless they’re totally abhorrent on reflection).