Are we naked with or without data?

Excerpt from No Straight Lines

Chapter Five: The big P and little p of transformation: once you have stormed the Bastille, you don’t go back to your day job

As the shape of our world evolves, we are also in political transformation, both in terms of the political relationship between the individual and commercial organisations and the large Politics of how we organise and run our societies. What should government look like in a non-linear world? Are we creating and running the right systems in the right way? How does data change/impact the process of democracy and civil organisation? Refined data is the black gold of the 21st Century.

Data, democracy and identity: Where to start on this particular part of the journey through our non-linear world? The first step must address the issue of data; who would have thought even in 2005, that consumer politics and societal politics would revolve around data, who has it, who owns it and how it is used, combined with the legal frameworks that protect us as citizens.

The recent events around Edward Snowden, Prism, Tempora and Boundless Informant, demonstrate what I meant. In a recent interview with Henry Jenkins I wrote in answer to his question on data:

Data is integral to what comes next, thinking from a perspective of openness and aesthetics of design in that only ugly thoughts bring to bear ugly realities. It may not at first seem a clear connection between data, individual sovereignty and democracy. However once we understand that at high level the commercial world seeks to influence and in some cases coerce political institutions then we have to see them as linked. Or indeed that political ideology seeks to direct the course of political outcomes as is the case in Pennsylvania at the moment and elsewhere where Republicans seeks to make it much harder for various sections of the African-American community to vote in the hope they weaken Obama’s chances of re-election.

In Britain there are attempts by the Government of the day to legislate so that they can access and extract comprehensive, fine-grained covert surveillance of entire populations. All our digital activity: voice, text, Google searches, a level of surveillance that is unprecedented and perhaps pernicious.

Read full article

(Posted by Tomi T Ahonen on behalf of Alan Moore)

Comments

[R]

"So are we naked with or without data? The fact is we are already so immersed in the stuff its [sic] impossible to go backwards."

We can't conduct normal human interaction in this society without generating data in several databases, so the trick is to manage the creation of the data. Self-censor in various media, taking into account its potential for abuse. Do not email anything sensitive; use PGP or S/MIME if the contents are sensitive but the headers are not. I'm using Privacy and Incognito mode in my browsers, even though I'm pretty sure there is only slight benefit to privacy.

Also consider the 1859 Carrington Event. That was the first major solar storm after the world discovered commercial uses for electricity, and it caused quite a bit of damage to telegraph systems. Our electronic devices these days are much more sensitive to voltage fluctuations than the telegraph systems, so it would be interesting to see what another Carrington Event would do to them.

[Alan Moore]

Yes I agree, so we are naked without data, which poses a dilemma for us today especially when we consider the recent Edward Snowden revelations, GCHQ and Bradley Manning's wikileaks.

A long time ago I wrote that refined data was the black gold of the 21st Century.

To your point about privacy filters - it seems we have none.

we live in a more complex world no doubt about that - but I do think the argument that we all have the right to privacy is a fundamental human right which has become so ever more complex.

Thanks for posting your comment

[Sex Toys]

It is actually a great and helpful piece of info. I am satisfied that you shared this useful information with us. Please keep us informed like this. Thank you for sharing.

[not fake]

For starters, almost all in the lenders have a website, which allow the objective clients to complete online web forms and submit their applications in the comfort of their homes not fake it is for the own good if you stay inside the good books of one's bank because or even, you may have to face serious consequences like a a low credit score history.

[Megan]

Thank you, I have just been looking for information about this topic for a long time and yours is the greatest I have came upon till now. However, what about the bottom line? Are you sure concerning the source?

[Mike Rooney]

The blog topic is very informative and interesting for readers and i also really enjoyed it.