Privacy
News Commentary: Applauding Google Dashboard
1On Sundays I offer comments on some of the most interesting information technology stories that I have found on the web that week. Please feel free to join in the discussion or suggest stories during the week.
This week’s story is from BusinessWeek.com and it reports on exciting and unexpected release of Dashboard by Google. This completely unprecedented privacy awareness tool will hopefully spark of trend among online purveyors of data mining and aggregation. Give it a read:
businessweek.com – Google Dashboard: Control Panel for Your Data
Early this morning, Google is launching a new feature that lets you view what data is being stored on a range of Google services. Google Dashboard also will let you control at least some of that data and how it’s used by Google and even delete it.
For a collection of all the stories about this, check-out Google News’ coverage here.
Below is what it looks like for a nominal user. You go to this link and log-in using your Google credentials. It then builds a personal display or dashboard of what tools of theirs you use, what they know about your use of them, and how they got that information. You may, as I was, be surprised at some of the information that they collected on your from many years ago and tools long gone cold.
For thought, privacy is defined on Wikipedia like this:
Privacy (in Latin privatus ‘separated from the rest, deprived of sth, esp. office, participation in the government’, from privo ‘to deprive’) is the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively. The boundaries and content of what is considered private differ among cultures and individuals, but share basic common themes. Privacy is sometimes related to anonymity, the wish to remain unnoticed or unidentified in the public realm. When something is private to a person, it usually means there is something within them that is considered inherently special or personally sensitive. The degree to which private information is exposed therefore depends on how the public will receive this information, which differs between places and over time. Privacy can be seen as an aspect of security — one in which trade-offs between the interests of one group and another can become particularly clear.
While I know that there are really no “rights to privacy” specified in any US founding documents, the principle and expectations are clear from the public. I also know that the web works best when it is tailored to your individual interests, preferences, and concerns. To do the second, while protecting the first is a tight walk on a mile high balance beam. I applaud Google for giving users the ability to help them balance these two polarities while tipping the scales in the direction of your preference by giving you a way to see what they know about you and correct/fix it. While no one is suggesting that this is the final chapter in this meme of the Internet Age, a titan like Google making a stride like this towards the individual is a great step in the right direction. Thank you Google for Dashboard.
You can log-into your own Google Dashboard at this link.
What do you think about this topic? Do you agree or disagree with me? Do you have a recommended news story for next week? Please share your ideas below.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for November 8, 2009 by Scott Coughlin.
Image Credits: easyhealth.org.uk and Google.com
Book Review: Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Series
0Today, as my Information Technology Thought of the Day, I offer a reading suggestion.
Sometimes, the best way to appreciate the potential energy of a concept, is to have a storyteller weave a tale out of it. I consider Isaac Asimov’s masterpiece Foundation Series to be the ultimate fable of what the true impact of information management could be on the human race.
Isaac Asimov was a genius who wrote dozens of books during his life. Though he never announced it, he cleverly wove many of them together in a single, continuous universe. This group of stories has come to be referred to as The Foundation Series. I consider it the greatest science fiction tale of all time and a must-read for Information Professionals.
The Foundation Series is a set of science fiction stories and novels that cover a nearly 500 year time period in a distant future where a thousand plus planet galactic empire exists. It is populated by people and robots and features many advances that are key plot factors. The most important of which, is a budding new discipline called psychohistory. This new scientific area of study concerns the mathematical treatment of fortune telling on a macro scale. The unexpected feature of psychohistory is that on an empire-sized horizon, it is nearly 100% accurate at foretelling their futures.
Wikipedia has a wonderful page on this series. It includes suggested story reading order, plot synopsis, and character backgrounds. (Warning: it contains spoilers as to the plot so you might want to skip the plot summary!) If you prefer to experience the series in a manner closer to the way that it was for its first readers, without the benefit of hindsight to his magnificent writing career, then start with the keystone novel, Foundation, If you fall in love with it, as I know that you will, you can always go back and read the prologues and surprise tie-ins to his other books.
There are two primary reasons why I recommend this book to Information Professionals. First, the plot, uniquely revolves around knowledge management. Second, it is a virtual treatise on the moral implications to that same topic. First of all, without ruining any plot points, the series is all about a small group strategically and secretly controlling data, information, knowledge, and wisdom over a five hundred year period in order to reduce the dark ages between two galactic empires from a predicted 30,000 years to only 1000. This group literally employs information as a competitive advantage to influence people, events, and whole civilizations with the goal of both personally surviving and creating a beneficial outcome. The only thing that they have as a weapon, commerce token, and diplomatic tool is what they know that others do not. The moral implications of this situation apply directly to Information Professionals’ daily trials and tribulations. In the book, those with knowledge of true circumstances are faced with one ethical dilemma after another in employing it. Individual liberty vs. group profit, privacy vs. action, and the needs of the many vs. the few are but some of these classic moral minefields. His fictional tales read like case studies in today’s similar moral dilemmas on network security vs. privacy, domestic surveillance requests, and employee’s rights on corporate computer systems. I guarantee that Information Technology professionals will appreciate the parallels immediately.
I expect that if you try it, you will like Asimov’s Foundation Series. I think that rather than be put off by its breadth, you will quickly come to appreciate the depth of the work and be thankful that there will be more of it for you to enjoy for years of reading pleasure. I, also, believe that, like me, you will find that as you mature as an Information Manager, you will value more and more Asimov’s thoughts about information use. While the sum total of his work many represent the ultimate hyperbole for Knowledge Management gone awry, as a galactic-sized cautionary tale to Information Professionals, it is priceless. I hope you enjoy it!
This book recommendation is my Information Technology Thought of the Day for October 8, 2009.
Image Credit: Wikipedia
News Commentary: Freedom of Search?
0Today, I wanted to bring to your attention a very interesting, Information Age and Information Technology story circulating within the media. It has had and will continue to have significant influence on our industry for years to come.
CNN.com – Racist Obama image shines light on Web searching
The reason that I think that this story is such a significant technology meme is that it is fundamentally all about freedom of search as it concerns freedom of speech, capitalism vs, socialism, the expression of a corporate legal entity vs.an individual, and who will control the index of our lives. All of the concerns and considerations of censorship and book burning are also at play, too.
If you, as an Information Technology Professional, have not been following this developing story, I recommend that you consider it. I expect that there will be long-term ramifications no matter how this particular case concludes. There are obviously a number of very slippery ethical and moral slopes in play here and one ignorant or dumb step onto any of them could and would significantly influence the way that the Internet continues to develop.
That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for December 4, 2009 ©Scott Coughlin
Image Credit: faqs.org