Do you find this creepy?

[Reflexx]

Is Google's next product in the White House privacy report? | ZDNet

The 2014 White House Privacy Report section reads:


Taylor Rodriguez prepares for a short business trip. She packed a bag the night before and put it outside the front door of her home for pickup. No worries that it will be stolen: The camera on the streetlight was watching it; and, in any case, almost every item in it has a tiny RFID tag. Any would‐be thief would be tracked and arrested within minutes. Nor is there any need to give explicit instructions to the delivery company, because the cloud knows Taylor?s itinerary and plans; the bag is picked up overnight and will be in Taylor?s destination hotel room by the time of her arrival.

Taylor finishes breakfast and steps out the front door. Knowing the schedule, the cloud has provided a self‐ driving car, waiting at the curb. At the airport, Taylor walks directly to the gate ? no need to go through any security. Nor are there any formalities at the gate: A twenty‐minute ?open door? interval is provided for passengers to stroll onto the plane and take their seats (which each sees individually highlighted in his or her wearable optical device).

There are no boarding passes and no organized lines. Why bother, when Taylor?s identity (as for everyone else who enters the airport) has been tracked and is known absolutely? When her known information emanations (phone, RFID tags in clothes, facial recognition, gait, emotional state) are known to the cloud, vetted, and essentially unforgeable?

When, in the unlikely event that Taylor has become deranged and dangerous, many detectable signs would already have been tracked, detected, and acted on?

Indeed, everything that Taylor carries has been screened far more effectively than any rushed airport search today. Friendly cameras in every LED lighting fixture in Taylor?s house have watched her dress and pack, as they do every day. Normally these data would be used only by Taylor?s personal digital assistants, perhaps to offer reminders or fashion advice. As a condition of using the airport transit system, however, Taylor has authorized the use of the data for ensuring airport security and public safety.

Taylor?s world seems creepy to us. Taylor has accepted a different balance among the public goods of convenience, privacy, and security than would most people today. Taylor acts in the unconscious belief (whether justified or not, depending on the nature and effectiveness of policies in force) that the cloud and its robotic servants are trustworthy in matters of personal privacy.

In such a world, major improvements in the convenience and security of everyday life become possible.

 

[Guytronic]

Yes

 

[N_LaRUE]

Being in the UK we're one of the most surveyed populaces on the planet. Though I think there's a level between street cameras and LED light fixtures with cameras in them. A smart house that is too smart. I don't want people detecting my mood.

As a traveler there is nothing I would love more than faster services through a security but at the same time I'm not ready for 'the cloud' to do it for me. I don't trust 'the cloud' that much with that kind of data.

Thing is though, however uncomfortable this makes people, the government and pretty much anyone else can find all they need about you fairly easily if they want to anyway. I'm not even referring to the NSA either. A private detective, a surveillance and some rummaging through your mail and you they have a good idea who you are.

To answer your question, yes it's creepy but that's because we have fears of things like that. Maybe one day we won't.

 

[amagner]

It seems as if in many ways, Google is becoming an extension of the US gov't. That should scare everyone.

 

[xandros9]

Honestly I think I've found myself more comfortable (who has the manpower to look at everything individually?) with this sort of thing and i understand the convenience. (don't think id be willing to give up that much for that much convenience, but I'll admit, it sounds really cool, especially the antitheft part.)
it sounds almost like the setting of one of those scifi stories. those utopias with a dark underbelly (whether criminal or governmental)

the thing sounds like a logical albeit extreme expansion upon Google Now.
I would be worried however, when the system makes mistakes, with that much power it could wreck someone easily.

 

[Reflexx]

I think it's funny how in the article it says that older generations will see this as Orwellian while younger generations will be comfortable with it.

Ummmm... having the general masses comfortable with it IS Orwellian!

 

[xandros9]

I think it's funny how in the article it says that older generations will see this as Orwellian while younger generations will be comfortable with it.

Ummmm... having the general masses comfortable with it IS Orwellian!

maybe we should update the book, call it 2084.

 

[DaT Franchise]

Agenda 21

 

[Reflexx]

...or maybe 2018.