TED and Greenbiz thinks it’s just ducky we’re becoming passive citizen sensors, cheerfully and obediently relaying information about where we are and what we’re doing to the Omniscient Cloud. The Cloud of course only has our best interests at heart and would never ever be used for nasty political purposes like targeting dissidents, collecting information on political opponents, or lulling the public into a stupor.
Oh wait, some have already willingly volunteered for the stupor.
Indeed, the citizen sensor is already reality. Through check-in applications like Foursquare and geotagging photo tools like Instagram, we’re able to provide fairly precise data about ourselves, what we’re doing and where we are. The utility here may be more for social purposes than anything else, but it’s important to recognize that we apparently have no problem actively providing information for others to consume. We’re comfortable being the data source.
“We”? Not me, pal. Being monitored constantly with no control over where the data goes or how it is used inexorably leads to less freedom and democracy, not more. Once governments get control of this, privacy will vanish and the eye of the government will be in our homes and businesses and stay there – to protect us, of course. This will no doubt make elitists like those at TED happy since in their technocratic arrogance they assume they know what is best for us and that, of course, their caste will be in control of the data.