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Monday, October 28, 2013
Privacy is dead
Robert Cringely is not usually one to fall for hype or get overly excited. He's been around the tech world for 3 decades now, and has pretty good instincts.
Late at night can’t you imagine that somewhere some tech is reading his girlfriend’s e-mail?
It's been that way in the telcos for years. I worked with a guy who did field service for a company that made central office switches. He was on a customer site doing switch upgrades (which are normally done late at night) when the site engineer pointed at a light on card in one of the racks. "This lady goes out every Friday night, gets picked up by some guy, then comes home and calls her girlfriend to tell her all about it. Check this out." He plugged in a handset and they both listened. I guess it was pretty explicit.
In the past 3 decades Things have simply gone from We can, but why bother to We Can and Why not.
I described it to someone the other day as a reduction in the energy of activation which ultimately shifted the equilibrium point. I suspect now I was wrong with that analogy, instead I suspect it is a self catalyzing reaction. Bureaucracies want to justify larger budgets, larger budgets require larger expenditures for such justification, it all keep rolling downhill.
Eventually Water-meal (Wolffia globosa) becomes Yggdrasil then finally Etz Chaim subsuming all.
5 comments:
Late at night can’t you imagine that somewhere some tech is reading his girlfriend’s e-mail?
It's been that way in the telcos for years. I worked with a guy who did field service for a company that made central office switches. He was on a customer site doing switch upgrades (which are normally done late at night) when the site engineer pointed at a light on card in one of the racks. "This lady goes out every Friday night, gets picked up by some guy, then comes home and calls her girlfriend to tell her all about it. Check this out." He plugged in a handset and they both listened. I guess it was pretty explicit.
Wasn't it Scott McNealy who said, "You have no privacy. Get over it."? In the'90s? "You have all the privacy of a grain of sand in the sandbox"?
Not like it's something new.
Nothing new if you've been paying attention since the early 90s...
@Old NFO Yeap.
In the past 3 decades Things have simply gone from We can, but why bother to We Can and Why not.
I described it to someone the other day as a reduction in the energy of activation which ultimately shifted the equilibrium point. I suspect now I was wrong with that analogy, instead I suspect it is a self catalyzing reaction. Bureaucracies want to justify larger budgets, larger budgets require larger expenditures for such justification, it all keep rolling downhill.
Eventually Water-meal (Wolffia globosa) becomes Yggdrasil then finally Etz Chaim subsuming all.
Heck, it's just about got to "We can" and "Wanna make something of it?"
I kinda think I do, actually.
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