Subgenius Sighting

Last weekend, I caught this story on NPR Our Digital Lives, Monitored By A Hidden 'Numerati' .

Read it, or buy the book. It's a compilation of the Big Brother data mining habits of the credit card companies, grocery stores, websites, government agencies, and pathologists.
Some of what Mr Baker outlines in the book I already knew, some of it I imagined, some I feared, and some of it was a surprisingly positive reaching use of data mining (like the translation of spam deterring software to HIV mutation predicting models).

It's also a great segue into something I've been thinking about for a while. Privacy, who has a right to our personal information, and when or how should we protect it.

There's a wave of fear about online security and how to protect yourself from the dread online predators. This "protection" is usually directed at teens and preteens, particularly the girls. The big tools in use are 1-parental controls on website (easy for determined youth to supersede) and 2-police officers posing as young kids who trolling for a meet and sleep with middle aged men (Seriously, does anyone really think they'll find an actual sweet young thing in a chat room? It's seems a little incredible to me. I wonder if someone could wage a defense based on the probabilities and claim they were looking for a brush with danger in the form of a high speed car chase with the SVU.) Are either of these effective tools? Since I'm not part of the Numerati myself and too short of time to actually research it, I'll speculate that they're ineffective. I suggest that the best way to protect your children online is to develop a trust based relationship with your kids and encourage them to use the modicum of common sense that I'm sure they possess.

The new trend in online security is blog protection--word verification, sign in to post, or in the extreme--taking your blog private. Some of you are using these tools now. I hope they give you peace of mind. For now, my blog has no protection. Why? Well, first off, while my blog is public, I don't have the readership of the New York Times. I am comfortable with the assumption that my 20 or so readers are close friends or casual associates that find we have something in common (probably younguns). There are exceptions of course. I have received comments from someone wanting to sell me T-shirts with my blog posting (in Spanish) and someone making elaborate, inedible cakes--perfect for dieters birthdays. (If you want to dig for those comments, you can find them. I didn't delete them because of the sheer novelty of it.) I think its a little cumbersome to decode scribbles and always sign in to be able to post, and so I don't burden my guests with the trouble. If someday I receive multiple computer generated blog spam, or vicious anonymous posts, well then I'll look at ways to protect myself. But I view the protections the way I view antibiotics. Why give the germs something to build up resistance to? I'll save it for when I need it and hope it works then.

I basically think its a lot of trouble for someone to seek me out electronically as an individual. I share the philosophy of shoaling fish. There are a lot of people out there, and someone randomly looking for a victim will probably miss me and catch someone else. If I'm ever targeted by a perpetrator, I expect it to be someone I know, and any blanket defense won't be effective.

The predecessor to the Numerati is the market researcher. I actually like the market researcher. As an example, I think the car companies should ask consumers where to (and where not to) put cup holders. Even better if they ask me, and I decide where they should be. For a while I had a Nelson Ratings box on my TV. I loved it! I like my market research old style--based on broad demographic characteristics--the shoal.

I'm wary of tactics that try to go beyond demographic pools and go directly to the individual. I cherish my anonymity. I give fake names at the lunch counters (only partly because mine is difficult to spell and pronounce). I resist any suggestion at work that I should get a security clearance for govt programs. Sure that's partly because I don't want to spend all day in a windowless room and be searched on my way in and out, but mostly its because, while I don't have anything to hide, I don't feel like inviting the FBI to keep a file on me. I have a wallet full of grocery store customer cards, but the stores think its Regina Phalanges buying 2 gallons of whole milk a week. I am well aware that my credit card companies are keeping track of all of my purchases, and I consider becoming a cash only entity, but that's not really practical.

I don't mind market research, but I am very much opposed to data mining that targets me directly. I would like limits set on the corporate information gathering. Even more alarming is government data mining.

I have more thoughts on this, but no more time to commit to it now. Read the book and form your own.